Tragic death of
a 14-year-old in Dongguan factory
emphasizes more must be done to
eradicate practice。
The
unexplained death of a 14-year-old boy
at an electronics factory in Dongguan,
Guangdong province, has led to renewed
calls to eliminate child labor in
China, where World Day against Child
Labour is celebrated on
Wednesday.
Liufu Zong was in
his Dongguan Jinchuan Electronics Co
Ltd dormitory and did not wake
up at about 7 am, on May
21.
His roommates said they
checked to see if he was all
right when he did not wake, but
his body was cold, so they
rushed him to hospital.
They
added he returned to the dormitory
the night before about 10 pm and
seemed normal.
Police investigating
the case discovered the boy concealed
his real name and age from his
employer.
A third-party employment
agency sent him to the electronics
factory using an identity card in
the name of "Su Longda", who is
older than 18.
According to
China's labor law, 16 is the
minimum age for employment.
"It
was difficult for us to determine
that the boy was underage and
he looked similar to the individual
pictured on the ID card," commented
Cheng Yun, the human resources
director at Dongguan Jinchuan
Electronics.
Cheng said the
company has about 600 contract employees,
and about 300 others who signed
contracts with employment
agencies.
The boy's father,
Liufu Kuanyuan, said his son was
healthy before he headed to Dongguan
as a migrant worker.
"He
took cold showers during the winter
and he rarely had colds or
fevers," he said.
He said
he believes his son dropped dead
due to overwork.
"He worked
about four or five extra hours
every day. How can a 14-year-old
bear working so long?"
He
said he had advised his son
over the phone to quit the job
since he often complained that it
was exhausting.
HR director
Cheng, however, believes that the
boy's death may have been due
to his lifestyle.
"I heard
from his roommates that he often
went to Internet cafes and
occasionally would not return to the
dormitory. When he did stay in
he often played with his phone
until late at night."
However,
Cheng confessed that her company did
not provide health checks when
recruiting workers and instead only
asked employment agencies to send
"healthy workers".
Deng Zhijian,
a local authority human resources
official, said records showed workers
often did overtime at the electronics
factory.
Zong's job was
to test computer motherboards and he
was paid 11 yuan ($1.79) an hour, and
worked about 50 extra hours a month,
after starting work on March
1.
Zong dropped out from school
at 12. He helped his farmer father
provide for the family of six,
which included a grandfather in his
80s, two younger half-brothers and his
stepmother.
He took part-time
jobs with his father in nearby
villages doing construction work, until
February, when he went to the
industrial city of Dongguan with
friends.
Chen Zhaocai, Zong's
relative, who is handling the case
on behalf of the boy's family,
said he believes overwork and a
toxic workplace environment caused the
boy's death.
"I became
more certain of this after the
factory refused to allow the
boy's father to go to see
his workplace," said the
75-year-old.
Zong's corpse is
being held at the funeral home,
as compensation negotiations between his
family and the company have come
to a deadlock.
After two
rounds of negotiations, Dongguan Jinchuan
Electronics agreed to pay 100,000 yuan
($16,300) as "comfort money for the
bereaved family", aside from the
compensation that will be decided on
by the arbitration
authorities.
Chen said Zong's
family will not accept compensation
less than 1.2 million yuan.
The
Asia Pacific region has the largest
number of child laborers in the
world — 113 million out of the global
total of 215 million, according to the
2010 Global Report on Child Labour
released by the International Labour
Organization.
While official data
from China is not available, analysis
of data from other countries in
the region indicates child labor is
most prevalent in agriculture, followed
by services and manufacturing, according
to Simrin Singh, senior specialist on
Child Labour from the Decent Work
Team for East and South-East Asia
and the Pacific under the
ILO.
ILO has been working
with the Chinese government to provide
direct services to vulnerable children
through integrating a life-skills education
curriculum in schools, equipping students
with the basic skills necessary to
migrate safely, avoid risks, and find
a decent job.
Sound labor
policies, legal protection for young
workers and strong enforcement, plus a
quality educational system up to the
minimum age of employment would help
prevent child labor, Singh said in
an e-mail.