Samsung has suspended business with a Chinese supplier over child labor

Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it is temporarily halting business with a supplier in China because a company investigation indicates the supplier used child labor. Last week, nonprofit labor group China Labor Watch accused the South Korean company of overlooking the use of child labor at supplier Shinyang Electronics Co., which makes cellphone covers and parts for Samsung in Dongguan, China. China Labor Watch, based in New York, claimed it found several cases of underage workers being put to work at the factory without being paid for overtime hours. Samsung had previously rebutted the watchdog’s latest claims, saying that its previous audits on the factory had revealed “no cases of child labor.” However, in a separate investigation that the company conducted immediately after last week’s allegations raised by China Labor Watch, Samsung found evidence of an “illegal hiring process that took place on June 29,” the company said in a written statement Monday. Shinyang couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The report published by China Labor Watch last week had suggested some underage workers were using other people’s IDs to get hired at the factory.