The maker of TVs and mobile phones found evidence of the practices following an internal audit of 105 of its China-based suppliers, which included employees working more overtime than is allowed by law as well as fines for workers turning up late.
But the audit did not uncover any evidence of child-labour practices, of which Samsung’s suppliers were accused of doing by China Labor Watch (CLW) back in August and which prompted Samsung to carry out its internal audit.
In a statement the company said, “Samsung takes concerns about working conditions in China seriously. Whenever an issue is identified, we take immediate and appropriate steps to correct it.
“Although we did not identify any child labor during our audits in September, we have demanded all suppliers to adopt a new hiring process immediately, and contracts with suppliers who use child labor will be terminated.”
Going forward the company plans to audit a further 144 of its suppliers before the end of the year as well as develop and implement measures to correct the practices it uncovered including new hiring policies, work hours and overtime practices. Samsung also plans to use the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, a Washington-based industry group, to check its plants and Chinese suppliers from 2013.
