Electronics workers in Mexico are regularly subjected to labour rights abuses, says a new report from the Catholic aid agency, CAFOD.
The report reveals how workers are exposed to toxic materials, safety rules are ignored allowing accidents to happen and workers are denied rights including being banned from trade unions or unions being company controlled.
In 2004 CAFOD's 'Clean Up Your Computer' campaign persuaded leading electronics manufacturers Dell and IBM to sign up to Codes of Conduct aimed at improving conditions for workers across their supply chain. Following the campaign, Hewlett Packard, Dell and IBM met local organisations and heard first hand the experiences of electronics workers.
This report forms part of CAFOD's work with its Mexican partner organisation the Centre for Reflection and Action on Labour Issues (CEREAL), which works to ensure that companies live up to the commitments that they have made, and make real and lasting improvements for people working in developing countries.
Interviews were conducted with almost 2,000 workers within the supply chains of electronics companies, including Hitachi, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Philips, Dell, Motorola, Lenovo and Intel. A total of 236 cases of alleged abuse were documented.
CAFOD's partner in Mexico, CEREAL who wrote the report, found disturbing cases including a woman whose hands were severed by a company machine because of a fault with the machine.
Other workers described how they were still worried about exposure to toxic materials and requests to switch roles were turned down. One woman worker died after being hit by a car in the work car park. Her family were asked to withdraw their compensation claim against the transportation company but after CEREAL's intervention the transportation company relented and have paid compensation to her family.
Electronics equipment is Mexico's main export and the industry employs 400,000 workers who earn on average 100 pesos (US$ 9.25) a day. The industry was worth US$46 billion in 2006 and Mexico is the tenth largest exporter of electronics equipment in the world.
The report also reveals that some workers were forced to stand during the whole of their twelve hour shifts and requests for chairs were denied. Even a six-month pregnant woman was forced to stand for the whole of a seven hour shift.
The report also highlights other bizarre rights abuses including employees being asked in interviews if they had tattoos and another worker described how she was asked about her sex life during an interview.
