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Employees of top electronic brands 'overworked': report

On the hunt for the latest smartphone, console, tablet or television? A new report has investigated the supply chains of many major brands looking for potential labour exploitation.

Child labourers carry stones on their head at a stone crusher on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, June 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
Child labourers carry stones on their head at a stone crusher on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, June 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) Source: AP

Non-governmental organisation, Baptist World Aid, has released a report ranking 56 electronic brands and the level of potential labour exploitation in their supply chain.

Advocacy manager at the organisation, Gershon Nimbalker, said electronics companies were graded on four areas of their labour rights management system: Supplier exception policies, supply chain knowledge, supply chain monitoring processes and worker rights policies - including living wage targets.

"One of the big concerns for us, is that no company scored well enough to receive an A-grade," he said.

"Part of that is owing to the fact that no company had completely traced supply chain. Even the companies that received a B-plus weren't able to show us where their raw materials come from, or their mines, and that's often where some of the most egregious worker rights abuses occur."

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He admits, tracing supply chains is not easy to do and some companies are tracking work as far back as far as the smelters.

The average score for the companies surveyed was a 'C'.

Mr Nimbalker said the grading suggested employees were overworked and underpaid, leaving them vulnerable to fluctuations in food, water and electricity prices. 

The report found 64 per cent of companies did show some improvement since last year.

But, Mr Nimbalker said more needed to be done by companies and consumers to ensure some of the world's most vulnerable people - especially children - do not get stuck with exploitative working conditions. 

"What we want consumers to do is vote with their wallets and preference those companies that are doing more to protect the workers in their supply chain and then call on their favourite companies to keep taking more action, to make sure people aren't being enslaved, children aren't being used and that workers are being paid decent wages," he said.


2 min read

Published

Updated

By Julia Calixto

Source: SBS News


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