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.”
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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.
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You and your sock puppets are trying to justify the worst crimes against humanity, and you engage in the same kind of second-hand intimidation while spreading false narratives.
Lol. Your sockpuppetry is well documented on here, Scotty. I encourage people to look it up, and yes, I encourage people to read my history and to evaluate for themselves on it too. It’s all there in public, including prior debates we’ve had where you’ve been utterly shredded. I really hope people read those.
As for me, I have one single account on here and just post for myself. That’s it.
You have either sock puppets or are part of an orchestrated propaganda campaign. There are too many accounts here with a very similar spin, both regarding content and the behaviour of insulting others. That’s no coincidence.
No, Scotty. You’re wrong. That’s bullshit. And, I’ll keep encouraging anyone who reads this to just evaluate on the evidence. It will be pretty evident to anyone who looks at my history.
Anyone who looks at your history will find something that looks quite different.
Lmao that’s rich claiming sock puppets coming from you. I don’t know if you interact with your other accounts or not, but lmao