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Brazil Sues Samsung Over Worker Conditions
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.'"
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.
Why would /. allow a submission that uses a source that requires registration or a premium account to view?
and then you get the next hot phone from the same guy who sells drugs all under the table.
Samsux is going too far imitating Apple. Get a grip.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
A copy of the story from The Verge.
Interestingly, Samsung paid out $200,000 in 2011 to Brazil for working conditions as well.
And China Labour Watch also has citations to Samsung.
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.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
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.
Boycott samsung, amiright?
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
No RSI! Nothing to see here!
Where do I get my check from Samsung for putting positive comments online? (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/samsungs-pr-firm-offered-500-135402062.html)
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?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
A copy of the story from The Verge.
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 developed than many people think).
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
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
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!
http://saveie6.com/
Only Apple mistreats their factory workers. This is clearly FUD spread by people with an anti-Android agenda.
Honestly though, I can't wait to see Mike Daisey's brilliant piece of investigative journalism, "The Agony And the Ecstasy of Kwon Oh Hyun."
How much of this is an actual complaint and how much of it is blaming the foreigners? I'm sure if Brazil looked around they could find hundreds of domestic companies who were much worse. What's the political situation in Brazil right now, is the government hurting for cash or is an election coming up?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
This is a payoff fishing expedition from Brazil needing currency
Get serious...
Hey, you forgot your "Sent from my overpriced iProduct" sig.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
"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 hours."
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.
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.
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.
NDA? Are you scared because of that? Just spill your guts. Unless you're a coward in which case you won't.
How can an NDA cover "work methods" and "work conditions"? Are you seriously that stupid?
I worked at the Free Economic Zone of Manaus, where most of the phone manufacturers are located in Brazil, back in 2009. I can tell this is just business as usual: they have strong unions, and the unions make some pressure in the local gov and the gov reacts. But anyway, Samsung never made in any local list of "Best Place to Work" in Manaus. I felt like everyone working there faced it as a temporary job until he/she could find something better.
South Koreans might be willing to work the fun out of life.
Not Brazilians.
Everybody Samba!
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 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.
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.
Enlighten us with your secret knowledge of Samsung's manufacturing processes, upon which your whole argument is predicated.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Sorry, but you are just being silly. Even if your naive and shallow analysis of brazilian economical situation was right, 250 mega dollars is nothing compared to the size of brazillian economy. Also, Samsung might (and probably will) appeal the fine, and that will take years to come to a close. Stop being stupid and posing as someone who knows something - for instance, Brazil did NOT close external banks transfers. You are probably mistaking it for some other country.
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 factories as described wold cause wealth and longevity to skyrocket. You are tackling a tiny issue while General Zod flies around breaking 3 necks a second.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Workers should have made strikes because of this kind of stuff, specially after a month of riots around the country. The saddest part is that people have no idea about their rights.
Samsung forgot to pay their bribes to the Brazilian authorities.
How ya like dat?
...they were given tickets to Carnival.
Carnival Cruise Lines, that is....
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Ok, lots of comments by fucktards that know nothing of Brazilian labor laws, or even how our justice system works (or doesn't, whatever). Better give you guys something that is actually factual. Keep in mind that, due to extreme abuse in the past, Brazil has _very_ strict labor laws that have several unalienable rights. Also, in all civil matters re. Brazilian labor law, *the employer is presumed guilty*, otherwise the employee would _always_ lose.
From http://info.abril.com.br/noticias/mercado/2013/08/ministerio-publico-do-trabalho-processa-samsung-em-r-250-milhoes.shtml (which is a _respected_ brazillian news outlet), and yes, I am a native portuguese speaker, so I am not using automated translator crap:
The Brazilian government is suing samsung for ~US$ 120 million, over massive repetitions (i.e. for way too many workers) of _severe_ breaches of _Brazilian common labor law_. Some of the violations are: unpaid overtime in excess of 5 hours/day (even PAID overtime must be at most 2h/day in Brazil); workers forced to stand up over 10h / day; a worker did 27 consecutive days of work (which is against the labor law, there are several work regimes that are allowed in special situations and contracts, but none of them will let you work more than 15 days without a break, no matter what). Also, they have a lot of workers on medical leave due to RSI injuries, way above the expected numbers for that type of factory, which is by itself enough to convict Samsung.
That kind of mass breach of the labor laws essentially gets samsung the absolutely worst possible label you can get in a Brazilian judgment: "presumption of bad intent" (aka "you were being Evil", it was not an oversight/accident). For anything the judge finds to be true, they will be punished with extreme prejudice because the "presumption of bad intent". And let's remember that Samsung will be presumed guilty, so any charges they cannot prove to be false beyond shadow of doubt _will stick_.
THAT is why the fine is so large: it is a punitive fine, it MUST cause enough damage to Samsung's bottom line in Brazil for the lesson to stick, and for the sociopaths they have as executives to lose their bonuses for the quarter/year.