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

Codes of conduct and social revisions from the buyers
According to the workers the purchasers make occasional visits. They are said to sometimes
ask questions about their working hours, but not about other working conditions. According
to the employees, the management tells the workers what answers they shall give in advance.
Brio has been the customer of supplier D since 2000 and has visited the plants several times in
accordance with the sales assistant Nelson Li Brio. Brio is said not to have any objections
against the working conditions or the working environment at the plant, but has mainly been
interested in the prices and product information.
Top Toy undertook a social control of supplier D 2001 and the supplier was classified as
category D, which is the lowest level. An action plan was made, but there have not been any
new inspections at the plant. According to Wydy Ling, responsible of the code of conduct at
Top Toy, this is due to a lack of time. Top Toy has instead chosen to direct more of its toy
purchases to another supplier in the south of China.
Violations against the codes/the legislation according to the interviews:
• Working hours
• Works seven days a week during peak season
• Don't give any minimum wage guarantee
• Incorrect overtime compensation
• No health examinations
• No health and safety education
• Insufficient insurances
• Dangerous working environment
• Cheating at inspections
Plant E
The plant is located outside Shenzhen and produces plastic toys. It subcontracts work like the
sewing of puppet clothes and puppet hair. The plant manufactures for Brio and Top Toy in
Sweden as well as for Walt Disney and Wal-Mart 3 . It has about 2 000 employed who are
guest workers from poor provinces in the north of China.
SwedWatch has not been able to visit the factory. The information builds on interviews with
the workers outside the factory carried out by HKCIC in February 2004.
Working hours
According to the interviews with the workers they work eleven hours per day including three
hours overtime until 9.30 pm every day. During peak season, from May to October, the
overtime might be five and a half-hours, which means that they work until 12 pm and have
working days of close to 14 hours. The dressmaker's workshop has the longest overtime work,
until one o'clock at night during peak season. The overtime hours represent nearly 150 hours
per month during this period. The working hours at supplier E therefore strongly violate the
labour legislation, which prescribes less than three hours overtime work per day and at the
3 For the Swedish buying companies this is confirmed, for Wal-mart and Disney this is based on what the
workers told HKCIC when interviewing them outside the factory.
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