Chinese firm used child labour

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Chinese investigators said a stationery company accused of using child labour to produce merchandise for next year's Olympics had illegally employed children but not to make Olympic products, state media reported.

A report by the Playfair Alliance, released in London on Monday, said four factories in south China had exploited workers and that Lekit Stationery had employed "more than 20" children younger than 16.

An investigation by local authorities in Dongguan, an industrial hub in China's southern Guangdong province, found that Lekit Stationery had hired eight schoolchildren under the age of 16 during school holidays in January and February, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

The children, including six middle-school students and two from primary school, were paid 32 yuan ($4.20) for a 12-hour day and had worked six days a week, Xinhua said, citing the investigation.
The children were hired to "pack notebooks, not Olympic-licensed products," Xinhua said, and had told investigators that they had not made Olympic souvenirs.

"The city government says the under-aged children should not have been working at all and that Lekit underpaid them," Xinhua said, adding that the city authorities had ordered the company to "rectify" the situation.

Investigators did not say if the children would receive back pay or if the company would be fined.

The Organising Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) had summoned Lekit and three other manufacturers to answer charges they had breached labor laws in the manufacture of Olympic products, Xinhua said.

"The legal affairs department has started to look into the accusations and the results will be announced as soon as the investigation concludes," Xinhua quoted Lu Chuan, a BOCOG spokesman, as saying.

The manager of Lekit Stationery admitted a sub-contractor sometimes used by the company had hired schoolchildren for "light work" during their holidays.
Lekit manager Michael Lee later denied that the company's Olympic products manufacture had been contracted out to the factory in question.
The investigation had also found that Lekit had not signed labor contracts with 352 of its 772 workers and had underpaid them, Xinhua said.