Samsung has exposed the horrendous conditions at its suppliers in China

Samsung wants to be recognized as one of the world’s top 10 places to work. That’s a core goal of the Korean company’s Vision 2020 plan for the future, but to get there it’ll have to do a lot to correct working practices at the manufacturing plants where its goods are made. As part of its 2014 Sustainability Report, Samsung commissioned independent inspections at 100 of its suppliers in China and the results make for grim reading. The majority of suppliers did not comply with China’s legally permitted overtime hours, half had workers under 18 handling potentially hazardous chemicals, and a third failed to provide proper social insurance for their employees. Of the inspected sites, 59 lacked adequate safety equipment or appropriate monitoring, three suppliers exceeded permissive environmental limits for dust or noise levels, and 33 failed to properly manage sewage and waste disposal. These findings add to an unhappy historyof industrial accidents at Samsung’s own facilities and will surely be a major worry for the company. For its part, Samsung has consistently mandated and requested better operational practices from its suppliers and also aided them directly with the provision of basic training and equipment like fire extinguishers and evacuation maps. Furthermore, over the past year Samsung has rectified 1,934 work-hazard issues identified in its production plants by the Korean Ministry of Labor and another nine that were pinpointed by the Ministry of Environment. There are now 2,000 “highly trained” inspectors that oversee work operations, including specialists on dangerous chemicals and a dedicated leak-response unit.