Recent inspections by the Labor Department in Haizhu, a district of Guangzhou, finds that 30% of apparel factories had serious overtime violations.
Local media report that May and June are the two months that see the most overtime violations for the labor intensive enterprises, when 16-hour days are common. Inspectors reportedly went to the Lujiang area, which has numerous garment factories, and visited an unnamed factory of 180 workers. There they saw time sheets indicating one employee started work at 15:30 and worked until 10:00 the next morning, and had only had two days off in April. The monthly salary for 27 days at 16 hours each was between RMB850 and RMB1000.
That factory has been fined RMB500 per worker for the overtime violations, amounting to a total of RMB90,000.
Liu Jiaqi, director of Haizhu District Labor Department says that they will strengthen their crackdowns of these illegal factories in the future, with specific attention placed on the apparel sector.
