China Labor Watch said in a report after several months of investigation that the manufacturers -- which served a handful of global players, including Disney, Bandai and Hasbro -- paid "little heed to the most basic standards of the country."
"Wages are low, benefits are non-existent, work environments are dangerous and living conditions are humiliating," it said.
The report comes as Chinese exports are under growing scrutiny abroad over safety concerns a week after Mattel Inc recalled millions of toys, including 436,000 die-cast toy cars from its "Cars" line, because they may contain excessive amounts of lead.
China has also been hauled over the coals for the safety of food, drugs and other exports ranging from tires to toothpaste. Officials have been quick to say that the vast majority of the country's exports meet standards.
The report concluded that "short-sighted policies" drive major companies to "turn a blind eye to safety -- and to ignore the labor conditions in their supplier factories as well."
"Instead of concentrating on improving product safety and workers' lives, companies spend their energy creating beautiful pamphlets on social responsibility, disputing critical reports and shifting blame," it said.
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Walt Disney Company International said that it and its affiliates take claims of unfair labor practices very seriously, investigate any such allegations thoroughly and take remedial action.
"We have a firm commitment to the safety and well-being of workers, and fair and just labor standards," spokeswoman Alannah Goss said in an e-mailed statement.
Hasbro could not be reached for an immediate comment, while Japan's Bandai declined to comment.
China Labor Watch listed steps big international firms should take, including: pay supplier factories a reasonable price for their products, help the factories correct violations and take responsibility for suppliers' legal infractions.
They should also pay better wages and publicize the results of factory audits, it said.
Many foreign companies and experts in Chinese manufacturing say it can be hard to verify whether or not a supplier is living up to commitments to meet labor and environmental standards 100% of the time.
Suppliers, including some named in the China Labor Watch report, sometimes coach employees how to answer questions during inspections, and many keep two sets of books to fool auditors.
Industry experts also say that some manufacturers show off clean, inspection-passing facilities to international clients when they visit, but secretly subcontract some of the work to hidden, substandard production lines that are cheaper to run.
In the Pearl River Delta, a manufacturing hub on the southern coast near Hong Kong that drives much of China's spectacular growth, labor conditions have "improved somewhat" in recent years but remain poor, China Labor Watch said.
"Corporate codes of conduct and checklist-auditing are not enough by themselves to strengthen workers' rights if corporations are unwilling to pay the real price it costs to produce a product according to the standards in their codes."
The group said it saw quality problems as "a result of multinationals' single-minded pursuit of ever-lower prices and neglect of other considerations."
Eighty percent of the $22.3 billion worth of toys sold in the United States were made in China, said China Labor Watch, which has been promoting labor rights in the country and reporting on working conditions there since 2000. (Reuters)
