On November 26, Hong Kong media ran a story about how some of Dell's contracted plants in China are treating their employees and pointed out that they are violating China's labor law.

According to the reports, a group of researchers from Hong Kong's seven universities did a collaborative survey on Dell's outsourcing plants. They discovered that three plants in south China are essentially sweatshops. More than 60 workers from different departments inside these plants revealed that they have to work for up to 16 hours a day with a daily salary of as little as 17 yuan, or 2.1 yuan per hour. They are paid 3.5 yuan per hour for working extra hours, much lower than the minimum 4 yuan stipulated in the law. They are only given 15 minutes for meals. Additionally, these plants provide their employees with very bad working environments and no annual vacations or maternity leaves. No contracts legally bind the employers and the employees. What's worse, these employers have not adopted any protective measures for those working under hazardous conditions.  

An official with Dell China said that the three factories mentioned in the story provide electronic components for a number of IT companies; Dell is just one of their customers. They are not Dell's plants. Moreover, the conditions in these plants are not as described in the story; they are not sweetshops.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/mainland/channel/32958.shtml)

(China.org.cn November 27, 2007)