Essay On Working Conditions

Submitted By philippaM
Words: 1690
Pages: 7

A Review on working Conditions

Children in India are fighting to improve the terrible conditions they often have to work in.
In the UK it's illegal for children to work more than a few hours a week. But around the world 250 million children have to work in order to survive.
Long hours for little money
They do all kinds of jobs, from working in factories to collecting rubbish from the streets.But now organisations of child workers - or unions - are springing up across the country to put pressure on the government to make their life easier.Sarasa, 16, is a cleaner in Bangalore, and president of one of these new unions.The cleaners depend on running water to do their job, but the only pipe they've got is miles from their home.They've got together to ask the local government to move the pipe nearer to where they need it.
End to child labour
Charities and human rights organisations have been calling for the end of child labour for years.But for many children, like Suraj, working is something they can't avoid.He's been rag picking since he was nine."It's not as if anyone else is going to feed us," he says, "so we have to work."The new unions are one of the few glimmers of hope he's got.
COMPLAINTS
• 'Working excessive overtime without a single day off during the week'
• 'Living together in crowded dorms and exposure to dangerous chemicals'
Two explosions in 2011 in China 'due to aluminum dust' killed four workers
Almost 140 injured after using toxin in factory, reports New York Times
Working excessive overtime without a single day off during the week, living together in crowded dormitories and standing so long that their legs swell and they can hardly walk after a 24-hour shift.These are the lives some employees claim they live at Apple’s manufacturing centres in China, where the firm’s suppliers allegedly wrongly dispose of hazardous waste and produce improper records.Almost 140 workers at a supplier in China were injured two years ago using a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens - and two explosions last year killed four people while injuring more than 75. Hard grafters: Workers inside a factory of Foxconn, an Apple manufacturing partner, in the township of Longhua in the southern Guangdong province. A New York Times investigation looked at the working conditionsAssembly: Employees of Hon Hai Precision Industry, an Apple producer, work along a production line in the Longhua Science and Technology Park, also known as Foxconn City, in Shenzhen, ChinaThe California tech giant had allegedly been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant in southwest China before the explosions at those plants, reported the New York Times.‘If Apple was warned and didn’t act, that’s reprehensible,’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology work safety expert Nicholas Ashford told the New York Times.
‘But what’s morally repugnant in one country is accepted business practices in another, and companies take advantage of that,’ the former U.S. Labor Department advisor added.Banners in the Chengdu plant gave a warning to the 120,000 staff: ‘Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow’. Workers who arrived late often had to write confession letters.

At work: Apple executives claim the firm has improved its factories in recent years and issues a supplier code of conduct on labour and safety - but problems still exist, according to labour advocacy groups Unpleasant sight: Nets to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths are pictured outside one of the Foxconn factory buildings in the township of Longhua, in southern Guangdong provinceApple executives claim it has improved factories in recent years and issues a supplier code of conduct on labour and safety - but problems still exist, according to employment advocacy groups.
'Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow'
Banner in Chengdu plant
More than half of the suppliers audited by Apple have broken at least one part of its