You may think that huge electronics corporations don't really care whether or not their Chinese manufacturers abuse student workers, but companies are attempting to change that perception more directly.
It was revealed Thursday evening that computer maker Hewlett-Packard is now implementing new rules regarding student labor in its Chinese factories.
According to the New York Times, Chinese suppliers were given the new set of rules Friday morning, in which limits were placed on their treatment of employees. One of the rule states that students must be allowed "to leave work at any time upon reasonable notice without negative repercussions, and they must have access to reliable and reprisal-free grievance mechanisms."
That seems pretty reasonable, but the rules don't stop there. Chinese companies often hire students who have no interest or desire to remain in the fields of electronics and manufacturing, but HP's new rules state that a student employee's duties "must complement the primary area of study."
Additionally, HP wants to limit the number of students working at its factories to a maximum of 20 percent of the total workforce, with a future goal of reducing that number even further down to 10 percent. There's no timetable for when that would happen, though.
The new rules come as the operating practices of Chinese suppliers face increasing scrutiny. Many companies in the country employ student labor, and, while that isn't necessarily bad, the Times says that "students complain of being ordered by school administrators to put in very long hours on short notice at jobs with no relevance to their studies; local governments sometimes order schools to provide labor, and the factories pay school administrators a bonus."
Companies like HP, Apple, and Samsung all use these factories as part of their supply chains. Aside from real moral objections, companies also realize that their association with abusive student labor policies is a net negative for their image, and are now trying to find solutions.
"We're doing this because we think this is an important issue, and there are certainly concerns around it and some ambiguity around the appropriate standards," said HP spokesman Howard Clabo.
Although the new rules are certainly a step in the right direction, how they will be enforced is a question that remains unanswered. Child labor laws are regularly ignored in China, and its unclear that the training sessions HP plans to put organizations through will be enough to spark sufficient change.
