MPT seeks U.S. $ 250 million Samsung for poor working conditions
Ministry of Labor indicates violations in the company's factory in Manaus Free Zone. In 2012, there were 2,018 requests for removal by health problems
By Carlos Juliano Barros | Category (s): Reports
To prepare a box with mobile phone battery charger, headset and two instruction manuals, employee of the Samsung factory located in Zona Franca de Manaus has only six seconds. After this step, the package is transferred to the employee following the assembly line, which has a mission to scan the package at two different points and then stick a sticker. In a single day, the task gets to be repeated up to 6,800 times by the same worker.
Workers are standing up to ten hours, according to the Ministry of Labor. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
Workers are standing up to ten hours, according to the Ministry of Labor. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
Factory built in the heart of the largest rainforest in the world by multinational South Korean origin - which in 2012 reported record net income of $ 22.3 billion - a TV is placed in a cardboard box every 4.8 seconds. The assembly of a smartphone, made by dozens of workers arranged along the production line takes 85 seconds after. Already one split air-conditioning is ready in less than two minutes.
Data that could inspire a version Amazonian "Modern Times", the filmmaker Charles Chaplin, appearing in a Public Civil Action (GPA) filed last Friday (10) against Samsung for Regional Labor Attorney of the 11th Region Ministry of Labor (MPT). But the problems do not stop there. The MPT caught several employees who work up to ten hours on foot, as an employee whose journey extrapolated 15 hours in a day and an employee who has accumulated 27 days of service without break.
Because of the health risks of their employees imposed by the fast pace and the repetitive activity of the assembly line, they charge a collective moral damages of at least U.S. $ 250 million from the South Korean company, world leader in the market smartphones. Reporter Sought by Brazil, the press office of Samsung sent a note stating that "once we receive notification about this case, we will perform an analysis of the process and will cooperate fully with the Brazilian authorities." Company representatives also say they are "committed to providing our employees around the world work environment that ensures the highest industry standards regarding safety, health and well-being." *
No breaks
can not, however, calculate the precise number of people who journeys exhaustive and overtime abuses. "The company was notified to submit the documentation for the journey, but refused to show it," says Ilan Fonseca, one of the attorneys who signed the MPT action. In it, prosecutors asked that the company give breaks to employees .
"This public civil action is important because the value postulate has a pedagogical effect," said Luiz Antonio Camargo de Melo, Attorney General Labour, who also signs the deed. "The subjection of workers to 15-hour days is something unacceptable, especially in a company the size of Samsung" adds the highest representative of the MPT.
"The establishment of Samsung in Manaus few years has shown an index of illness very high, up to the average of other companies," continues the prosecutor Ilan Fonseca. In fact, the statistics are impressive. Over the last year, back problems, cases of tendonitis and bursitis, and other work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs called), generated 2,018 requests for removal of up to 15 days for health reasons, according to the text of ACP. Samsung employs in all about 5,600 people at the plant, which supplies all of Latin America. According to prosecutors, despite the severity of the problems found, this is not the case of exploitation of slave labor.
Diseases in series
If the system work in the areas of assembly phones and TVs is not changed, the MPT projects that about 20% of employees will develop some type of MSDs in the next five years.
Assembly line factory. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
Assembly line factory. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
The lawsuit filed by prosecutors is based on the assessment notices by registered auditors of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MTE) after two inspections made at the factory in Manaus - one in May 2011 and another in May this year. Through technical analysis, they found that the employees of South Korean company come to hold three times more strokes per minute than the limit considered safe for ergonomic studies.
The frantic pace and repetitive movements typical of the production line are also compounded by flaws in the ' layout of jobs "- as the height of tables and inappropriate lack of chairs for rest, for example. "The company does not have the appropriate management of occupational health. She is not worried in fact in solving the problem, "said Romulo Lins, tax auditor MTE.
In the text of the ACP, prosecutors claim that punitive damages collective £ 250 million "may seem, at first, too, however, and put things, equates to what the defendant profits around the world, in less than two days. " Also according to the action, if the U.S. $ 250 million to be divided by the number of employees at the factory in Manaus, the value (U.S. $ 44,000) would be close to the individual claims of punitive damages, motivated by occupational diseases, which run on Labor Court of Amazonas.
To settle in Manaus Free Zone, Samsung has various tax incentives, such as exemption from the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) and the reduction of up to 75% income tax , among other stimuli. "The company receives tax benefits and transfers this entire labor liabilities for Social Security [which bank employees removed for health problems]. She levied twice the state, "criticizes the attorney Ilan Fonseca.
Special Series Modern Times:
MPT asks Samsung give breaks to workers at the factory in Manaus
"Manaus working conditions are similar to those in China," says U.S. NGO
Reporting bullying in Samsung Campinas is monitored by MPT
* Updated text to 17h Tuesday, the 13th, with the inclusion of Samsung's positioning, which until then had not acted on the action.
http://reporterbrasil.org.br
By Carlos Juliano Barros | Category (s): Reports
To prepare a box with mobile phone battery charger, headset and two instruction manuals, employee of the Samsung factory located in Zona Franca de Manaus has only six seconds. After this step, the package is transferred to the employee following the assembly line, which has a mission to scan the package at two different points and then stick a sticker. In a single day, the task gets to be repeated up to 6,800 times by the same worker.
Workers are standing up to ten hours, according to the Ministry of Labor. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
Workers are standing up to ten hours, according to the Ministry of Labor. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
Factory built in the heart of the largest rainforest in the world by multinational South Korean origin - which in 2012 reported record net income of $ 22.3 billion - a TV is placed in a cardboard box every 4.8 seconds. The assembly of a smartphone, made by dozens of workers arranged along the production line takes 85 seconds after. Already one split air-conditioning is ready in less than two minutes.
Data that could inspire a version Amazonian "Modern Times", the filmmaker Charles Chaplin, appearing in a Public Civil Action (GPA) filed last Friday (10) against Samsung for Regional Labor Attorney of the 11th Region Ministry of Labor (MPT). But the problems do not stop there. The MPT caught several employees who work up to ten hours on foot, as an employee whose journey extrapolated 15 hours in a day and an employee who has accumulated 27 days of service without break.
Because of the health risks of their employees imposed by the fast pace and the repetitive activity of the assembly line, they charge a collective moral damages of at least U.S. $ 250 million from the South Korean company, world leader in the market smartphones. Reporter Sought by Brazil, the press office of Samsung sent a note stating that "once we receive notification about this case, we will perform an analysis of the process and will cooperate fully with the Brazilian authorities." Company representatives also say they are "committed to providing our employees around the world work environment that ensures the highest industry standards regarding safety, health and well-being." *
No breaks
can not, however, calculate the precise number of people who journeys exhaustive and overtime abuses. "The company was notified to submit the documentation for the journey, but refused to show it," says Ilan Fonseca, one of the attorneys who signed the MPT action. In it, prosecutors asked that the company give breaks to employees .
"This public civil action is important because the value postulate has a pedagogical effect," said Luiz Antonio Camargo de Melo, Attorney General Labour, who also signs the deed. "The subjection of workers to 15-hour days is something unacceptable, especially in a company the size of Samsung" adds the highest representative of the MPT.
"The establishment of Samsung in Manaus few years has shown an index of illness very high, up to the average of other companies," continues the prosecutor Ilan Fonseca. In fact, the statistics are impressive. Over the last year, back problems, cases of tendonitis and bursitis, and other work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs called), generated 2,018 requests for removal of up to 15 days for health reasons, according to the text of ACP. Samsung employs in all about 5,600 people at the plant, which supplies all of Latin America. According to prosecutors, despite the severity of the problems found, this is not the case of exploitation of slave labor.
Diseases in series
If the system work in the areas of assembly phones and TVs is not changed, the MPT projects that about 20% of employees will develop some type of MSDs in the next five years.
Assembly line factory. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
Assembly line factory. Photo: Alex Pazzuelo, Communications Agency of the Government of the State of Amazonas
The lawsuit filed by prosecutors is based on the assessment notices by registered auditors of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MTE) after two inspections made at the factory in Manaus - one in May 2011 and another in May this year. Through technical analysis, they found that the employees of South Korean company come to hold three times more strokes per minute than the limit considered safe for ergonomic studies.
The frantic pace and repetitive movements typical of the production line are also compounded by flaws in the ' layout of jobs "- as the height of tables and inappropriate lack of chairs for rest, for example. "The company does not have the appropriate management of occupational health. She is not worried in fact in solving the problem, "said Romulo Lins, tax auditor MTE.
In the text of the ACP, prosecutors claim that punitive damages collective £ 250 million "may seem, at first, too, however, and put things, equates to what the defendant profits around the world, in less than two days. " Also according to the action, if the U.S. $ 250 million to be divided by the number of employees at the factory in Manaus, the value (U.S. $ 44,000) would be close to the individual claims of punitive damages, motivated by occupational diseases, which run on Labor Court of Amazonas.
To settle in Manaus Free Zone, Samsung has various tax incentives, such as exemption from the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) and the reduction of up to 75% income tax , among other stimuli. "The company receives tax benefits and transfers this entire labor liabilities for Social Security [which bank employees removed for health problems]. She levied twice the state, "criticizes the attorney Ilan Fonseca.
Special Series Modern Times:
MPT asks Samsung give breaks to workers at the factory in Manaus
"Manaus working conditions are similar to those in China," says U.S. NGO
Reporting bullying in Samsung Campinas is monitored by MPT
* Updated text to 17h Tuesday, the 13th, with the inclusion of Samsung's positioning, which until then had not acted on the action.
http://reporterbrasil.org.br
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