Beams factories overworked and underpayed Chinese trainees
Mainichi reports that factories making Beams clothing illegally made Chinese trainees work overtime for low wages:
“We had to use sewing machines until dawn while only eating instant noodles and bread,” recalled Ren Xin-Yan, 26, who worked at the plant after she came to Japan from China’s Tsingtao in October 2005. She had to work overtime for 200 to 480 yen per hour, including New Year’s Eve and New Year’s holidays. Ren, who currently resides in China, lost 10 kilograms in weight and was hospitalized three times over the two and a half years she stayed in Japan.
In June last year, a Labor Standards Supervision Office in Yawatahama, Ehime Prefecture, urged the plant’s manager to pay the nine Chinese women about eight million yen to cover unpaid wages. The Takamatsu Regional Immigration Bureau later ordered the plant to stop accepting foreign trainees, which forced it to suspend the production of clothes.
Beams’ public relations department has confirmed that illegal labor practices took place, but has claimed that local factory operators were acting on their own without the knowledge of the company.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
