A Hong Kong-based group releases findings of interviews with dozens of workers. Daily wages are less than US$ 10, but working hours are three times the legal limit. Working conditions are poor and security is nil. Workers lose half a day's wages if they are 5 minutes late. Group appeals to the IOC for a code of conduct for companies involved in the Olympic Games.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Olympic merchandise for London 2012, which begins this Friday, is being produced in sweatshop conditions with staff earning as little as US$ 9.25 a day, despite organisers promising to clean up the supply chain, this according to a new report issued by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based workers' rights group.

In the past few weeks, activists in China spoke to dozens of factory workers making Olympic merchandise. They found that working conditions were appalling with workers exposed to chemical substances and solvents, some forced to work up to three times the legal limit.

At the Shiwei factory in Shenzhen, workers had to buy their own masks and were fined half a day's wages if they were five minutes late.

Another factory investigated was the Xinda facility in Guangdong, which made 25 million plastic figures of Olympics mascots Wenlock and Mandeville.

SACOM found that staff were exposed to hazardous conditions in the paint spraying department, where there was a "fine mist of paint hanging in the air".

New masks were provided once or twice a month, with workers often buying their own.

Some of the 50 workers interviewed said they left the factory constantly covered in paint and even their saliva had changed colour, whilst others were left feeling sick or chronically tired.

During the busiest period of production for the Olympics, between last December and April this year, staff worked six day weeks for 11 to 12 hours a day, clocking up 120 hours a month in overtime. This was despite Chinese labour laws stating overtime should be no longer than 36 hours a month.

In delivering their report, the authors called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure that higher standards on merchandise are in place for future games.

"The rampant rights violations reveal that Locog codes are really no more than lip service," SACOM said. "The IOC should [. . .] adopt a code of conduct" that includes terms like wages, hours and working conditions.

• china
• great
• britain
• london
• olympics
• sweatshops
• exploitation