Olympic souvenir firms fined for forced overtime

Two Olympic souvenir makers in southern China have been fined a total of more than1.36 million yuan (US$178,900) for for forcing their employees to work overtime.

Investigations showed the two firms making Olympic caps and handbags in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, ordered their employees to work long hours and one failed to pay them adequate overtime, said spokesman with the Shenzhen Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau on Tuesday.

At Mainland Headwear Holdings Ltd., 2,779 of the 3,000 employees were each forced to work 40 to 53 extra hours in May, while at the Yue Wing Cheong Light Products Co. Ltd., 1,779 of the 2,600 staff were each forced to work 60 to 100 extra hours, the spokesman said.

Mainland would be fined about 833,700 yuan and Yue Wing Cheong 533,700 yuan, equivalent to 300 yuan for each employee, he said.

The two companies, which had been ordered to "rectify their mistakes," have applied for a public hearing after which the labor authorities would consider penalties, he said. Mainland had already paid the workers the money owed and Yue Wing Chong had been ordered to pay the arrears.

The two firms, along with two others also with Olympic product licenses in nearby Dongguan City -- Lekit Stationery Co. Ltd. and Eagle Leather Products Co. Ltd. -- had allegedly used child labor, according to a report issued by PlayFair 2008, a global alliance of trade unions and labor organizations, in June.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced last week that investigations found that Lekit did use child labor, but not Olympics products, and the three other companies had not used child labor.

But BOCOG said it had decided to terminate Lekit's Olympic product license and demanded the company stop manufacturing and selling the products.

Meanwhile, investigators said that they had suspended the examination and approval of new product designs produced by the three other companies after finding they had forced employees to work overtime.