Chinese company denies using child labor

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese company named in a report about the use of child labor to produce merchandise for next year's Olympics has denied the allegations, a Beijing Games official said on Wednesday.

A report by the Playfair Alliance released in London on Monday said four factories in southeastern China were guilty of exploiting workers and that Lekit Stationery had employed "more than 20" children younger than 16.

"There is a huge gap between the report and what the enterprises told us. All four companies denied that they used child labor," Chen Feng, deputy director of the marketing department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), told a news conference.

The Playfair Alliance, represented in Britain by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Labour Behind the Label, looked into conditions at the four factories, which made 2008 Games bags, headgear, stationery and other products.

Some of the workers earned half the legal minimum wage, the report said, and others were made to work up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

The BBC reported on Wednesday that the manager of Lekit Stationery admitted a sub-contractor sometimes used by the company had hired schoolchildren for "light work" during their holidays.

Manager Michael Lee said he had been unaware of this and that none of the work on Lekit's Olympic products had been contracted out to the factory in question.

Chen said the investigations into the allegations continued and he would be meeting representatives of the companies, all based in Guangzhou, later on Wednesday.

"We will also be working with local government," he added. "If we discover any companies have used child labor, we will severely punish the violators."

Whatever the conclusions of the investigation, Chen said, BOCOG would continue to educate those enterprises contracted to produce licensed products in corporate responsibility.

"We want them to realize that their record on corporate responsibility ... has a lot to do with the reputation and image of the Beijing Olympic Games," Chen said.