Student workers at Dongguan factory were under-age, state media claim
State media says 192 underage labourers were given fake papers for jobs at Dongguan plant
Nearly 200 underage workers hired by an electronics factory in Dongguan were reportedly sent home following an exposé by local media.
They were working more than 11 hours a day for 8.50 yuan (HK$10.67) an hour and used fake identity documents to obtain the jobs, according to the .
A total of 192 "student workers" from Dongguan Gang Gu Electronic boarded buses taking them back to their villages, mostly in Hunan and Guangxi provinces, on Thursday after the local authorities intervened, the newspaper reported yesterday.
A logistics director at the factory said it could not know the veracity of the documents. The factory did hire teenagers, but all were at least 16, the mainland's minimum working age, the director said. Recruitment agents had made the referrals.
"We were a victim [in the recruitment] as well. We are not the police. How can we tell if identification documents are fake or not?" the director told the . Teachers from vocational schools introduced the pupils to local employment agencies, which provided them with fake , or household registration documents, the said. The agencies helped them apply for the jobs, it said.
"I was worried I would cut my fingers every single day," the quoted one worker, a 13-year-old girl from Guangxi, as saying. Her job was to operate a cutting machine. "But I wanted to keep my job to earn more money."
