Study finds horrible working conditions at Microsoft, Dell ODM factory

URL: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/11/study-finds-horrible-working-conditions-at-microsoft-dell-odm-f/

Despite the fact that the world economy is suffering from cutbacks in nearly every job sector, factory workers in places such as the Meitai factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong, China -- which assembles and produces keyboards for companies including Lenovo, Microsoft, Dell, HP and IBM -- have been relatively insulated from the downturn, and their jobs secure. The National Labor Committee has conducted a covert operation to investigate the working conditions at the factory, however, and found them to be less than acceptable. The workers -- who arguably are not compensated very well to begin with -- are cheated out of wages for negligible wrongdoing, forced into overtime, fed food that even a Dickens character would refuse, work twelve hours a day seven days a week, and sleep in dorms which are "primitive" (yes, workers live at the factory). The report that the NLC has compiled is quite long, detailed, depressing, and begins, ironically, with a Bill Gates quote. Hit the read link for the full story.

[Via Boing Boing]

Filed under: Peripherals

Study finds horrible working conditions at Microsoft, Dell ODM factory originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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