Microsoft mice made in poor work conditions

A new National Labor Committee report today accused Microsoft of using sweatshop-style labor at the contractors that produce its mice. A factory owned by KYE in Dongguan, China allegedly uses 1,000 teenage students aged 16 to 17 during the summer as part of a "work study" project that ultimately amounts to child labor. In some cases, students as young as 14 or 15 may even have been used, and the company almost always keeps to hiring girls 25 or younger.

Many of the workers also reportedly work extremely high overtime for little pay. A typical worker is said to stay at the factory for 15 hours per day, every day of the week, and is made to linger past the official hours even if they don't have work to do. Staff live in dormitories and aren't allowed to leave except at certain times.

Pay is very low and amounts to 65 cents per hour, the sources for the story noted. Meals aren't included in the pay and ultimately leads them to make just 52 cents an hour.

KYE has denied the claims and said it was socially responsible. Microsoft didn't deny the charges but did say it had "commenced an investigation" into the report, which included photographic evidence of many of the practices. Acer, ASUS, Best Buy, Foxconn, HP, Logitech and Samsung have also been implicated due to their use of the factory, but haven't responded to the new charges.

Chinese labor issues have been a mounting problem in the technology industry and haven't been exclusive to Microsoft, as Apple and others have been accused of allowing terrible conditions at contractors' facilities. Many of the abuses, such as hiring or exploiting underage workers, are against the law in China but either aren't fully enforced or are hidden by the companies involved. Western companies have begun turning to annual labor monitoring reports to correct the problems, although the National Labor Committee has warned that contractors often "cheat" to hide the extent of the problems.

By Electronista Staff