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Two Chinese sweatshops, which manufacture Wenlock and Mandeville Olympic mascot toys, have been uncovered for exploiting its workers by paying them a paltry six pounds per day wages. Factories producing plastic toys in Guangdong and Shenzhen city are committing 'rampant rights violations' against poor workers, who are been constantly exposed to hazardous working conditions. Workers are handed a fine of half a day's pay for being five minutes late and are made to regularly work for 120 hours overtime a month, according to a report published in the Daily Mail. Activists who interviewed workers at the Xinda facility in Guangdong said employees worked six days a week for up to 12 hours a day, which is thrice the legal overtime allowed under Chinese labour laws. At another factory in Shenzhen city, which also produces plastic toys for the London Organising Committee of Olympics and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), workers would regularly finish similarly long shifts at midnight, before starting again at 8 a.m. the next day. Hong Kong workers' rights group SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour) also claimed workers would be fined one-and-a-half days salary if they caused a 'work stoppage' by being more than five minutes late at these sweatshops. The SACOM report highlighted excessive overtime, meager wages and poor worker safety in the two factories. LOCOG has responded after these startling revelations by claiming it has independently reviewed the two factories, and claimed 'no issues were found' in the factories. "Regarding the Shiwei factory, Locog has undertaken a full review of Golden Bear's [official supplier of Olympic merchandise for London 2012] ethical trade management systems," a LOCOG spokesperson said. "Golden Bear has now fully committed to implementing all recommendations of that review and is in process of reviewing all factories in its supply chain," the spokesperson added.

Chinese sweatshops producing Olympic toys exploit workers