Olympic chiefs vow crackdown on child labour

BEIJING Olympics organisers vowed yesterday to come down hard on any cases of children being used to produce merchandise for the Games, after a report accused factories of “gross exploitation”.

The report by the Playfair Alliance, released in London, said Chinese children as young as 12 were involved in packaging licensed stationery products for next year’s Games at a factory in southern China.

Vice chairman of the Beijing Games organising committee (BOCOG) Jiang Xiaoyu said he took such issues seriously and sought “to protect the reputation of the Olympic movement and the Beijing Olympic Games”.

“If what was in the relevant reports indeed exists the organising committee will deal with it seriously,” Mr Jiang told reporters in Hong Kong.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was not directly responsible for the production of merchandise but added that it was committed to “being a socially responsible leader of the Olympic movement”.

The Playfair Alliance, represented in Britain by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Labour Behind the Label, researched working conditions at four factories in southern China making 2008 Olympic products.

Researchers found some of the workers earned half the legal minimum wage in China and were made to work up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Children and adult workers are being grossly exploited so that unscrupulous employers can make more profit,” TUC general secretary Brendan Barber was quoted as saying.