| Olympic product company hired children illegally |
SHANGHAI, Jun 15 -- THE government of Dongguan City in Guangdong Province said children under the age of sixteen did work for a stationery company that makes Olympic-licensed products, but they were employed to package other products.
The government's investigation showed that Lekit Stationery Co hired eight students under the age of 16 from January 19 to February 10 while they were on vacation.
The students earned 32 yuan (US$4.2) for a 12-hour day and worked six days a week, according to the investigation.
Six of the students were middle-school students and two were primary-school students. While investigators did not reveal the children's ages, primary students in China are usually under the age of 13.
The city government said the under-aged children should not have been working and that Lekit underpaid them.
The government said it has ordered the company to 'rectify' the situation, but did not say if the children would receive back pay or if the company would be fined.
Investigators found the students were hired to pack notebooks, not Olympic-licensed products. The students told investigators they were not involved in producing Olympic souvenirs.
The Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games summoned Lekit and three other manufacturers to answer charges they breached labor laws in the manufacturing of Olympic souvenirs.
"The legal affairs department has started to look into the accusations, and the results will be announced as soon as the investigation concludes." Lu Chuan, a spokesman for BOCOG, told Xinhua via telephone.
Dongguan's labor watchdog said even if Lekit didn't use the students to make Olympic souvenirs, the company still violated laws and regulations for underpaying the students.
During their eight-hour day shift the students were paid 20 yuan. They were also paid three yuan an hour to work from 6:30pm to 10:30pm.
The investigation also found Lekit had not signed labor contracts with 352 of its 772 workers and had underpaid them.
The labor watchdog ordered the company to sign the contracts with its workers and adjust the hours of work and pay before Monday.
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