Brazil Sues Samsung Over Worker Conditions 110
First time accepted submitter konohitowa writes "The Financial Times is reporting that the Brazilian government has filed a lawsuit against Samsung for working conditions that put workers' health at risk (both through repetitive motion injuries as well as excessive consecutive work days). Samsung has 'promised to conduct a thorough review and fully co-operate with the Brazilian authorities once it receives details of the complaint.'"
And then... (Score:2, Insightful)
Samsung has 'promised to conduct a thorough review and fully co-operate with the Brazilian authorities once it receives details of the complaint.'"
And then they will move the plant to Mexico.
Re:mexico drug wars is bad for makeing phones (Score:5, Insightful)
and then you get the next hot phone from the same guy who sells drugs all under the table.
Yeah that's nice, that subtle racism you are showing.
Protip: lots of Mexicans are regular people, not gang members or drug cartel lords. Many Mexicans have a work ethic that I straight up admire in fact.
I'm not upset or offended. The answer to your kind of ignorance is knowledge.
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Just adding more knowledge.
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Oh, okay, so the bigotry is totally okay if it's against a multiracial group. Got it!
When that multiracial group is the one known as "Americans", we see it on Slashdot quite often - so it must be okay!
Re:mexico drug wars is bad for makeing phones (Score:4, Interesting)
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When that multiracial group is the one known as "Americans", we see it on Slashdot quite often - so it must be okay!
No it's not OK just because you often see it on Slashdot.
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I dunno about all that now... But every single mexican i have ever met working construction for 10 years could get me weed.
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I dunno about all that now... But every single mexican i have ever met working construction for 10 years could get me weed.
Every single construction worker I've known could.
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I'm not racist, I'm just scared of the dark.
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yes... built by robots.
I think this is more about everyone scrambling to squeeze more money from their incoming streams as the global financial crises are continuing.
Get this crap out of here. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would /. allow a submission that uses a source that requires registration or a premium account to view?
Re:Get this crap out of here. (Score:4, Interesting)
Why would /. allow a submission that uses a source that requires registration or a premium account to view?
Possibly because Slashdot is now owned by a company that requires registration and a premium account for many of its websites [diceholdingsinc.com]. Naturally, they aren't going to see much of a problem with that.
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"/.ers sue /. for using non-free sources". ;)
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Enough (Score:3, Funny)
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You mean a signal blocking grip?
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Huh? You realise this is actually samsung's employees we're talking about here.
In Samsung's case, it's Samsung directly making the decisions about how they're treated.
In Apple's case, Apple specifies one thing in the contract for how they're treated, the 3rd party (sometimes) does another thing.
Apple are actively trying to stop this kind of thing, Samsung it appears are complicit in it.
Re:Enough (Score:4, Insightful)
Samsux is going too far imitating Apple. Get a grip.
Excuse me, but how is Samsung imitating Apple here? Apple has audits everywhere checking working conditions at the factories of their contractors and subcontractors, and fixes problems when they are found. This here is Samsung's own factory.
Revolt of the iSlaves (Score:2, Informative)
Samsux is going too far imitating Apple. Get a grip.
Over work pressure over the iPhone 5
http://www.gongchao.org/en/islaves-struggles/revolt-of-the-islaves [gongchao.org]
"In the evening of September 23, a riot broke out in Foxconn's factory complex in Taiyuan, Shanxi. 2.000 Foxconn workers took part in the riot, many thousands looked on, and 40 people got injured. The rioters smashed shop-windows, set fires on the street, over-turned police cars and demolished company fences. 5.000 police were sent in but did not bring the situation under control until the early morning hou
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I guess Foxconn should have hired more employees to handle the demand. But it sounds like they just wanted more profit.
Re:Revolt of the iSlaves (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/news/new-455.html [chinalaborwatch.org]
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Hey Robert Rankin aka Tuppe666! The UK (and Slashdot)'s #1 Google shill!
What wonders will you tell us about Google today? How is their privacy invasion bettering our lives? How can we benefit from putting all our data in their cloud!
Please tell us Robert!
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Apple has audits everywhere
Yep. And everyone knows that a company investigating itself is the most fair and thorough way to inspect a facility for human rights violations.
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fixes problems when they come under public scrutiny.
FTFY
I don't know why people expect anything different from the big corporations that make our fun geek toys than they do from other big business. It's always about profit margins.
Free Link (Score:5)
A copy of the story from The Verge [theverge.com].
Interestingly, Samsung paid out $200,000 in 2011 to Brazil for working conditions as well.
And China Labour Watch also has citations to Samsung.
Is this really news? (Score:3)
A copy of the story from The Verge [theverge.com].
Interestingly, Samsung paid out $200,000 in 2011 to Brazil for working conditions as well.
And China Labour Watch also has citations to Samsung.
I'm not familiar with the US law, but the Ministry of Labour in Canada will take a company to court if they believe the company to be violating worker safety laws.
... (and brazil is far more deve
In other words, it's great to see that Brazil is enforcing labour laws... but not particularly surprising. As countries move to establish and enforce workers rights (and move away from manufacturing our junk), more lawsuits will occur.
It's how workers rights are enforced, and it isn't news in a developed country
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And China Labour Watch also has citations to Samsung.
It says something when a private group that watches a country known for literally working its citizens to death in sweat shops, building giant dams using substandard concrete and technology that will one day result in a major ecological disaster... and saying nothing when one of the major employers started installing suicide nets on its properties to catch workers who were throwing themselves out of windows... says you have a problem with working conditions in your factories.
This is rather like Osama Bin La
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Samsung does nothing in China differently from other companies. More likely than not someone forgot to pay that month's bribe.
In Brazil (and in US) things are considerably better regarding working conditions, but the idea of random government targets for audits and fines and their relation to bribes (or lack thereof) still
hopeful (Score:2)
It's this kind of article that makes me hopeful for the human race. That the answer to corporate solvency isn't necessarily to find some third world country where you can work your employees seven days a week for bottlecaps.
Or, if that is the answer, you deserve to fail.
working conditions (Score:2, Informative)
In South Korea, work ethic is highly valued and people actually take pride in consecutive work days. Even a job as laid back as teaching usually requires 6 10 hour days a week. It's a ridiculous "hurry up and get it done but work all the damn time anyways" culture.
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Then Samsung should build the phones there...
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I happen to know how Samsung builds products. And RSI is actually not an issue. This is a payoff fishing expedition from Brazil needing currency, now that they've closed down external bank transfers in US dollars, and shut down a large sector of their economy. Rather than admit their mistake and undo it, they are now looking to get their money a different way.
Strange, but Apple (contractors Pegatron and Honhai) have faced the same charges in other countries.
Could it be that Samsung manufactures phones so dramatically differently that all Brazil can do shake Samsung down for a couple hundred thousand?
Re:I happen to know how Samsung builds products (Score:5, Interesting)
I happen to know how Samsung builds products. And RSI is actually not an issue. This is a payoff fishing expedition from Brazil needing currency, now that they've closed down external bank transfers in US dollars, and shut down a large sector of their economy. Rather than admit their mistake and undo it, they are now looking to get their money a different way.
Strange, but Apple (contractors Pegatron and Honhai) have faced the same charges in other countries.
Could it be that Samsung manufactures phones so dramatically differently that all Brazil can do shake Samsung down for a couple hundred thousand?
I'm under NDA on the exact process; they consider it proprietary. It's very weird, but in the limit, it makes a lot of sense, even if it adds some overhead that a traditional RSI-prone process would not have.
It's either a fishing expedition on the payola, as I said earlier, or it's a fishing expedition on the assembly process. I think they could have just hired an independent auditor to ask about it, sign the same NDA, the auditor would have just said "Oh." and told them to drop the RSI claim.
They may still have claims on the ergonomic furniture and the breaks, assuming workers in other manufacturing plants in Brazil get more breaks and, say, Herman Miller or other highly ergonomic chairs. It looks like they've already agreed to a modification of the work hours, specifically regarding mandatory overtime.
Here's an article on the lawsuit not behind a pay-wall, since the original link in the summary is generally unreadable:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323455104579012712866922406.html [wsj.com]
Note that they actually own up to the overtime policy and agree to change it.
PS: If you do a more than trivial look at the earlier China Labor Watch complaint, you'll see the same overtime issue, but that the basic labor rights issues were (eventually) admitted to be limited to the two third party suppliers, rather than the Samsung plants themselves.
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NDA? Are you scared because of that? Just spill your guts. Unless you're a coward in which case you won't.
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How can an NDA cover "work methods" and "work conditions"? Are you seriously that stupid?
Re:I happen to know how Samsung builds products (Score:5, Informative)
How can an NDA cover "work methods" and "work conditions"? Are you seriously that stupid?
An NDA can cover anything. If you hire me to organise your kid's birthday party, you can ask me sign an NDA so I don't tell anyone about it, and if I sign, I'm bound by the NDA.
Often NDAs cover trade secrets. In that case breach of the NDA might be criminal, not just a breach of contract. Work methods could be trade secrets, work conditions probably are not, and your kid's birthday party isn't a trade secret.
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US dollars? Who gives a shit about US dollars? The US is a bully and a liar and the sooner their economy fails the better.
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Enlighten us with your secret knowledge of Samsung's manufacturing processes, upon which your whole argument is predicated.
Android white knights: Assemble! (Score:2)
Moto X - 2000 American Workers (Score:2)
Boycott samsung, amiright?
Absolutely, Although you are obviously not sick enough to use lives of people to push an Apple products that have used child labour...and famously use Samsung components in their(not your) produces.
The bottom line is if you where Genuine you would be looking into buying(and promoting) a Android Motorola X as Google reopened a manufacturing plants to assemble them in America employing training and treating with dignity 2000 employees.
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/apr/25/samsung-tin-mines-indonesia-child-labour [theguardian.com]
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/news/new-448.html [chinalaborwatch.org] - Samsung’s Audits Ineffective, More Child Workers Uncovered
http://www.change.org/petitions/samsung-stop-exploiting-child-laborers [change.org]
Great idea (Score:2)
I am sure that Foxconn would still be more than happy to open their new rumored plant in Brazil and help one of the most impoverished countries in the world better themselves after this!
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one of the most impoverished countries in the world better themselves after this!
This is not really the case, at least in a large part of the country, specially in the Southern regions (São Paulo and below). I live in São Paulo right now (that's the state, not the city!), in a medium size town (pop. 250,000), have a regular job and my quality of life is not very much different than when I lived in Germany for some years, quite a while ago. The main problems are public services, specially health services (but I, like half of Brazilian population, have a private health insurance
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Do you believe that the origin of all North and Northeast population is identical (and in that case Bahia's)?
Of course not. That's why I said that there is a very mixed racial makeup. Slavery was one factor, but not the only one. There are regions in Northeastern states, such as in Paraíba or Pernambuco, where there are a lot of whites with Dutch and Portuguese background. In North and Mid-West regions there was a greater mix with native populations. It is impossible to say that it is the same, and I never said that.
What I said is that Southern states, and São Paulo, have a different ethnic profile.The f
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The main problems are public services, specially health services (but I, like half of Brazilian population, have a private health insurance) and public transportation
Not endemic crime? Because the inability to own anything because someone will steal it is a real turnoff. I was looking into moving there, and it doesn't seem like a really good idea with the frequent hostage kidnappings etc.
Apple use Samsung components (Score:2)
Only Apple mistreats their factory workers. This is clearly FUD spread by people with an anti-Android agenda
Apple famously (still) use Samsung components...and Samsung although they are very successful in the telephone market, also produce windows phones, Bada phones..and will soon do Tizen phones. Ironically Samsung is not as big in smartphones as it once was. Growth from Samsung has been flat compared to companies like LG and Sony (and other brands) taking up the slack in Apples declining market share.
Not a two horse race. (Score:2)
What?! Samsung are the only ones growing - they've just had a great quarter, again. LG is a distant 3rd place with 5% of the smartphone market.
Sent from my iPhone.
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24257413 [idc.com] These are the latest figures from IDC they actually break out Android shipments. They show Samsung growing less than the overall market from 44.4% to 39.1% (the iPhone dropped from 16.6% to 13.2%). Its not a two horse race however the market leaders want to paint it, and as time goes on even less of one.
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Umm, samsung is still the biggest. Apple was around 14% a couple of days ago. In third or fourth place If I remember correctly.
In second. Selling over 2.5 times as many as the third.
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Blame the foreigners (Score:1)
Re:Blame the foreigners (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, it is much harder for a domestic company (specially if it is not very large) to get away with this kind of behavior.
Brazil has very strict work laws, up to the point that even nannies and house cleaners are jobs under strict regulation. This case with Samsung is indeed very worrying, however it is not as common in companies as most people would expect in Brazil. We have hundreds of unions who have very resonant voices in politics.
Work conditions abuses in Brazil come mostly in two flavors:
i) Rural work in farms, specially up North. It is not uncommon to have people working under slavery regime in some farms, and some of the scandals involve even politicians who are also big farmers. The workers are usually very poor people who are deluded into getting a job in a farm and getting rich. Their travel costs are covered by the farmer, and so is living cost and food, and they stay in an eternal debt without ever leaving. They end up working 18 hours shifts for food, with no sanitary conditions, etc. This is taken seriously in Brazil, but more often than not the responsible for this are rich people, so they get away with fines and never see the inside of a jail cell.
ii) Manual labor done by foreigners, in particular by South Americans. In Sao Paulo city there are 200,000 Bolivians, 80% of them are illegal, and most of them work with sewing. They work under very poor conditions and earn very little. Since most of them are illegal, and most of them are in debt with people who helped them to get here, they are afraid to seek the police.
But in companies this is not the case. Even to me this news about Samsung came as a shock.
Quick everyone! (Score:2)
Find an excuse for the behaviour! It doesn't matter about the particular individual human beings that are suffering, because you have to look at some twisted bigger picture!
Unless it's a white American or European, then a single harm is a tragedy.
Hold the Boat! (Score:3)
So, the Brazilian government is doing something positive to improve the conditions of workers and all people on here can do is complain? Wow.
Samsung’s Manaus factory, which has 6,000 employees, instructed workers to perform triple the amount of movements considered safe under ergonomic studies, prosecutors said.
So, umm, that's ok?
... while one [employee] worked 27 straight days without a day off ...
This is ok as well? I admit this one is a bit less clear cut because it doesn't say how many hours the employee worked each day, but... seriously.
You're all (ok, most) saying -- essentially -- "fuck Brazil" and that this is not right. What the FUCK?
You know what I say? Slashdot these days is populated by pre-pubescent fucktards. Seriously, get over your entitlement shit and grow a brain. If this was happening in "USA: Fuck Yeah" you'd all have the opposite opinion. Arrgh.
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Search for "Samsung" and you'd be surprised by the spate of negative stories featuring Samsung recently. You'd think somebody is on a campaign to tarnish them... but then, why do they keep getting exposed cheating on benchmarks, funding astroturfers, and screwing workers over in poorer countries.
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Pennywise pound foolish concerns (Score:1)
The corrupt nature of a 3rd world's government, being kickback-oriented, has grotesquely harmed a lot more workers. Save your outrage for where it belongs instead of following in lockstep with some western politicians memeview of what should concern you.
Hint: The reason Brazil, with the population and resources of the US, isn't wealthy with everybody with a two car garage and much longer lifespans isn't because of western companies invading with factories -- it's because they don't.
Clogging them with facto
The real story (Score:1)
To appease the workers (Score:2)
...they were given tickets to Carnival.
Carnival Cruise Lines, that is....