Staff making Wenlock and Mandeville toys say they were paid as little as £6 a day and forced to work illegal overtime hours

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Olympics merchandise for London 2012 is being produced in sweatshop conditions with staff earning as little as £6 a day, despite organisers promising to clean up its supply chain, according to a new report.

Activists in China spoke to dozens of factory workers and discovered staff were forced to work up to 120 hours overtime a month, nearly three times the legal limit.

At one factory, staff had to buy their own safety masks and were fined half a day's salary if they were five minutes late to work.

One of the factories investigated was the Xinda facility in the Guangdong district, where 25m plastic figures of Olympics mascots Wenlock and Mandeville were made for Locog (London organising committee of the Olympic Games).

The report has been issued by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom), a Hong Kong workers' rights group.

Sacom also says staff were exposed to hazardous conditions in the paint spraying department, with 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, while others were left feeling sick.

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 – despite Chinese labour laws stating overtime should be no longer than 36 hours a month, the report said.

At the Shiwei factory in Shenzhen City, which also produced plastic toys for London 2012, 40 workers were interviewed and revealed they were working similarly long hours, not finishing until midnight, before starting work at 8am the next day.

They also revealed managers would fine them half a day's wages if they were five minutes late.

If they were more than five minutes late they would be fined one-and-a-half day's salary for causing a "work stoppage". Two work stoppages led to a six-day salary deduction.

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

The report added that a sustainable and ethical sourcing code issued by Locog in 2008 was inadequate.

It said: "The rampant rights violations reveal that Locog codes are really no more than lip service with no commitment to the enforcement of labour rights standards.

"The IOC should establish a policy and action plan for future Olympic Games … adopt a code of conduct for the suppliers which should include terms like living wages, freedom of association and the right to remedy."

The report follows similar claims made in January about another factory that was producing cuddly toys for Locog, the Yancheng Rainbow arts and crafts company in Jiangsu province.

At the time, Locog said it would carry out an urgent investigation.

A Locog spokesman said: "We place a high priority on environmental, social and ethical issues when securing goods and services. Both factories that the report references have been reviewed by Locog.

"Locog recently instructed an independent audit of the Xinda factory and no such issues were found.

"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.

"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."