Dongguan factory embroiled in child labor scandal

The underage workers are required to wear green uniforms in the factory. (Photo: Guangzhou Daily)

Their work cards indicate they are "student workers". (Photo: Guangzhou Daily)

(ECNS) – An electronics factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, is under investigation for employing child laborers, Guangzhou Daily reported.

About 220 underage workers, most of them middle school students, were found at Okaya Electronics Factory. They have been suspended from work.

A girl named Xiaojing said they submitted a copy of forged hukou booklet to a labor dispatch company before entering the factory. "We falsified our names and changed our age to over 16."

Liu Ying, head of the company's human resources department, said the student workers were recruited by Hongrui Labor Dispatch Co. "We require that workers in the factory be over 16 years old, and they must submit copies of ID cards to prove their ages."

But it's difficult to verify the authenticity of the copies, Liu added.

The company has promised to pay the student workers and send them home.

However, many of the underage workers were reluctant to go home. They wanted to stay and continue to work.

A boy named Awei said hundreds of students in his hometown, most of them under 16, went out to work during summer vacation. "We just want to earn money to relieve our families' burden."

Xiaojing said by working 11 hours a day, she can earn 2,000 to 3,000 yuan over the summer, which would be enough to pay for her board and lodging expenses in the following school year.

The underage workers earned very little. What's worse, agents from the labor dispatch company and so-called teachers who introduced them to the agents deducted a percentage from their wages as a "service charge."

Employing minors under 16 is illegal, according to China's labor laws.