A look at labour abuse as China firm whips workers, makes them eat roaches

Police in Zunyi county arrested three managers accused of abusing their workers after they failed to meet their sales targets.

The workers of the unidentified Chinese home renovation company were allegedly whipped by a belt, forced to drink urine and eat cockroaches.

A video on social media shows employees being whipped while others are forced to drink urine in the presence of their coworkers who are witnessing the extreme punishments. The story came to light after an employee went public on social media site Weibo and claimed he was subjected to such punishments.

Two of the company managers were jailed for 10 days, while a third manager will stay in jail for five days.

Staff were also threatened by managers in text messages, with screenshots shown on news website Zunyi Yaowen.

"If the sales goal has not been met by the end of this month, the team leader will have to eat three cockroaches for each failed sale," one text message read.

This is not the first time China has made headlines for the abuse of employees. In 2018, a video showed workers being slapped by their boss or made to crawl on the floor.

Other companies in China have also been widely criticised over their work culture.

According to a 2016 China Labor Watch (CLW) investigation into Apple’s largest supplier of the iPhone, Pegatron Shangha workers did not receive any wage increase even though the government had raised the minimum wage.

Employees were also not paid for working overtime, which for some amounted to 82 hours of extra work per month. Students interning in part-time programmes were working as many hours as regular workers. 

Walmart and Samsung workers had similar complaints, accusing their bosses of physically and verbally abusing them.

 Outside China

While steel workers in Germany will be working a low 28 hours per week, following strike action earlier this year, labour abuse in many other nations continues.

According to the International Trade Union Confederation Global Rights Index 2018, Bangladesh is the top offender when it comes to workers’ rights and at least 20 percent of European countries continued to exclude workers from labour laws.

Amazon has repeatedly come under fire for its treatment of employees. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of world’s second-most valuable company, has been criticised for allowing tough conditions in Amazon fulfillment centres and for the demanding work culture.

This has included several fatalities, including one in 2013 when a conveyor system crushed a temporary worker in a New Jersey warehouse. A US Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation found Amazon had exposed some workers to stress from repeated exertions, bending and standing for up to 10 hours at a time.

Even after raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour for US employees in November, Amazon's lowest wage is almost $3 less than the average for a non-management worker in warehousing in the United States.

Samsung’s issues are not just limited to the Chinese work environment. In 2018, the UN expressed concern over Samsung’s harassment and intimidation of female workers and labour activists in Vietnam. It was also slammed for its workers being exposed to toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing of electronic equipment.

In India, the same pattern exists. Workers making clothes for big brands including H&M and Gap have said they are paid very little and when they do not meet their impossible goals the employers call them “dogs” or “donkeys.” Some are even made to stand in front of their co-workers while their employers tell them to “go and die.”