As Canada lowers its tariffs and imports more electric vehicles from China, an upcoming report from New York-based labour rights researchers is making new allegations of forced labour practices at the world’s bestselling EV manufacturer, BYD.
China Labor Watch (CLW) received a complaint last fall from one of the thousands of migrant workers brought to Hungary from China to help build BYD’s first European plant in the city of Szeged — a $6-billion investment intended to supply the European market with around 300,000 vehicles per year.
The non-profit organization launched an investigation and provided CBC News with an advance copy of its findings, set for publication later this month.
“It’s important that consumers know what’s really behind some of these electric vehicles, and the labour conditions that are behind the production of these cars,” said project officer Elaine Lu.
“Chinese workers who are being brought in to work on these sites are being employed in quite horrible conditions.”
…
The report describes potential violations of Hungarian labour and migration laws, including:
- Seven-day workweeks with no days off to rest, with workers telling CLW they were instructed to lie to inspectors about their working hours if asked.
- Shifts of up to 12 or 14 hours, with only a short meal break and no paid overtime.
- Delayed wage payments of up to three months, with final payments withheld until workers returned to China.
- Steep recruitment fees used as a form of debt bondage, with low-income workers saying they were forced to stay despite poor conditions because they can’t afford to default on their contract.
- Workers entering on business visas instead of authorized work permits, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and unable to access services like health care for workplace injuries.
…
Guy acts like a jerk in public. Guy finds people don’t like that. Guy blames others for not liking how he acts.
Oh, see I was invited to act like this by your sock puppet Sicilian.
Guy says “I had no choice but to be a jerk! The world deserves my toxicity! I was downvoted!!”
shakes fist at sky while tears running down cheeks are lost in the rain from the permanent storm clouds over his head
Okay fuckstick. You obviously got forgotten when they handed out common sense. Like really you think your a clever man but you’re a pissy little bitch.
Seriously, you have your sock puppet accounts vote manipulating because someone talked back to your boyfriend.
Keep making my point for then…
Lol keep vote manipulating wirh your sock puppets.
I’ll keep giving you my one downvote per post on this stuff, and whoever else is giving you downvotes on this bs, you’re the one earning them.
Thank you for providing me with all the evidence of being a lil bitch. I said your behaviour was sus and then you clutched your pearls and started creating new sock puppets to make you feel big.
You’re nothing but a bitch. You wrote paragraphs when you should have just walked away.
Alright nutbar, I’ll leave you, your tears, your toxicity, and that fragile ego to your own personal rain cloud. Thanks for the productive chat. Hopefully it will provide both some entertainment and some insight to those who come along and read it afterwards. Have a lovely day.