4. Case study: Top Toy, Brio and Coop in China - Swedwatch

Supplier D
The factory is located between Shenzhen and Dongguan and has between 3000 and 5000
employees. At the factory, metallic toy cars are manufactured. The largest Swedish purchaser
is Brio, which is alleged to buy about a fifth of the suppliers’ products. According to the
vendor assistant of supplier D; Nelson Li, Brio has been a customer of the company for about
four years and is regarded as one of the most important customers of supplier D. Top Toy has
also been a customer of the supplier for a long time. 70 percent of the workers are young
women between the ages of 18 to 30 years. SwedWatch visited the factory in May 2004. Most
of the information below however comes from HKCIC interviews undertaken with employees
outside the factory in February 2004.
Working hours
According to the interviews with the workers outside the factory, they do nine hours of
regular working time and three hours of overtime work until 22:00, i.e. a twelve hour day. In
the department of stamping, spraying, assembly and packaging spraying, the overtime work is
alleged to be even longer as workers can do up to five hours of overtime a day during the peak
season. Their working days are then 14 hours long. In the department of injection molding,
working days are 12 hours long, from 8 am to 8 pm, with only a half-hour lunch break.
During peak season the workers maintain that they do seven days a week and at the most they
have one day off per month. Normally the workers in the screw injection-moulding
department however have one day off per week.
Wages
According to the workers they get piece wages, i.e. they are paid per produced unit, in
combination with a bonus system. The bonus varies between the different departments and is
allocated if a worker does not make any mistakes or breaks any rules in the factory. In most
cases workers can get a bonus of up to 19 Euro per month. Very few workers never make any
mistake, which is required to receive the total bonus. The wages vary substantially; some
experienced workers may earn 68 – 87 Euro while others only earn 39 – 48 Euro. They don't
have any minimum wage guarantee during the off peak season, which means that the wages
can sink periodically below the statutory minimum wage of 43 Euro per month.
Other working conditions
The workers state that they have to pay a fee of 2,9 Euro in order to get employed. Such fees
are illegal according to HKCIC. No health examination is offered though the law stipulates
that this should take place every year. No education is given to new workers. The worker
signs an employment contract for a year, but he/she does not receive a copy and the workers
complain about the management not following the contract.
Penalty fares are given for different violations against the factory rules. 2,9 to 4,8 Euro is
deducted if a worker is late for work three times a month. Fees of between 0,4 and 1 Euro are
imposed if guards encounter a worker not wearing protective clothing. According to the
interviews with the workers, the factory management is reluctant to permit sick leave, which
means that many workers work even though they are ill and finally get so tired they can
hardly make it to their workplace. If they are absent, three days' wages are deducted as a
punishment. The workers stated in the interviews that they have to ask for permission to go to
the toilet. Sales assistant Nelson Li maintained to SwedWatch however that everybody is
allowed to go to the toilet whenever they want to.
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