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Article

15 Sep 2006

Author:
Thomas Fuller, International Herald Tribune

'Sweatshop snoops' take on China factories

Samuel Wong...a social compliance auditor...said...[f]actories in China are using increasingly sophisticated methods to cover up widespread workplace violations...Some factories use specially designed software to churn out fictitious employee work logs...[In others,] supervisors hand out to their employees...questions that auditors are likely to ask - and the preferred answers...Daniel Viederman, executive director of Verité...said that Chinese factories used "institutional approaches to deception."...On the books, Chinese labor laws are strict...Steve Feniger, a managing director of SSPartners, a trading company [said], "The problem is that nobody implements them."...Despite the spreading use of social compliance audits, department stores or the owners of major Western brands are sometimes unaware - or are willfully ignorant - of the scale of the abuses, said Daniella Gould, the top manager in East Asia for Impactt, a company that audits factories and offers training to Chinese managers...Factory managers are wily in hiding their infractions, but inspectors have their own tricks. Wong is establishing a toll-free number for workers to place anonymous complaints...[while other] inspectors rented a hotel room with a view of the factory's entrance. [refers to Nike, Wal-Mart, Apple]