SAR firm faces Hanoi labour charges
A Hong Kong manufacturer of figurine dolls for US hamburger giant McDonald's has been charged in Vietnam for violating workers' rights.
Keyhinge Toys, which employs 3,000 local workers making promotional figurines for McDonald's has been charged with ignoring salary and wage requirements, failing to abide by redundancy conditions and violating safety standards.
Operating in the central Vietnamese city of Danang, the company has been charged with violating the country's labour code in the latest of a series of clashes with the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
'We have ordered the company to correct [its mistakes],' said Tran Le Thinh, head of the ministry inspection team which compiled a report on Keyhinge's activities.
'The company has no wage table . . . which sets levels of payment and is [instead] paying all employees just US$40 a month,' the inspection report said.
'Under the law, the minimum wage is $40 a month, but this applies only to unskilled workers.
'Keyhinge Toys is paying that amount to skilled workers and it is not right.' The report also alleged Keyhinge had not yet compensated 296 employees for working with toxic chemicals and had not met payout conditions for workers recently laid off.
'The company has no reconciliation committee to solve labour disputes and the labour union is weak,' the report said.
The company now has 45 days to address the ministry's concerns, but it remained unclear yesterday what sanctions it faced should it fail to do so. Attempts to contact Keyhinge director Steve Yam in Danang for comment were unsuccessful.
Office staff said Mr Yam was visiting the mainland and no one else at the company could comment about the ministry's charges.
Keyhinge has a history of disputes over industrial safety with labour authorities.
Three years ago, 24 workers were rushed to hospital after inhaling toxic fumes at work and 58 workers were reportedly hurt during a rush to escape the factory building during a fire alarm in 1997.
A subsequent investigation reportedly found the company had provided just one fire escape in a section of the factory which housed 1,000 workers.
