ICT companies Acer and Fujitsu Siemens are having their products made in China and the Philippines under poor working conditions.
SOMO conducted research in nine factories in China and the Philippines
that supply parts for Acer and Fujitsu Siemens Computers. Working
conditions in these factories are simply appalling. SOMO researcher
Esther de Haan explains, “Employees in China and the Philippines work
70 to 84 hours per week and, even in the best cases, rarely have a day
off. Salaries are not sufficient to cover even the basic cost of
living, and there is inadequate compensation for overtime work. Acer
and Fujitsu Siemens Computers allow their products to be manufactured
in these factories, but they do not take responsibility for the poor
working conditions nor do they take appropriate measures to improve the
situation.”
SOMO researchers also encountered critical health situations in the
factories. Unprotected workers handle toxic chemicals in poorly
ventilated spaces. Factory employees complain about nausea, dizziness,
and skin allergies. Workers are deprived of the chance to better their
own situation by means of a labour union; in the Philippines, the
management threatens workers with dismissal to keep them from
organising, and workers in China are only allowed to associate with the
state-sponsored labour union.
Production is being increasingly outsourced by the big-name brands, and
there is a notable lack of transparency in the supply chains. The
electronics industry recently established a code of conduct for the
entire sector. This code is a step in the right direction, although it
still requires improvement in many areas. Acer and Fujitsu Siemens
Computers, however, do not belong to the group of companies that
subscribe to the code. Neither do these two companies deal with social
issues in their own code of conduct, although they do have guidelines
for environmental concerns.
In reaction to SOMO’s research, Acer and Fujitsu Siemens Computers
revealed that they do not feel responsible for working conditions
outside their own factories. Ignoring their supply chain responsibility
shows that Acer and Fujitsu Siemens maintain a myopic interpretation of
corporate social responsibility (CSR). The companies do not do nearly
enough with respect to CSR, especially given that, in the ICT hardware
sector, little is still produced in the big companies’ own factories.
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The information in this news item is based on company profiles of Acer and Fujitsu Siemens Computers published by SOMO.
The company profiles were created for SOMO’s research on the ICT hardware sector, which is published in the report
CSR Issues in the ICT Hardware Manufacturing Sector.
