Samsung Electronics accused of sexual discrimination in China

BEIJING: Electronics behemoth Samsung is facing accusations of sexual discrimination and violation of Chinese law after it put up a recruitment poster seeking women workers who do not have communicable disease.

The company was recently forced to order a special audit into its labour practices after facing accusations on the use of child labour at its plant in Huizhou in Guangdong province , which is run by an outside contractor. The charge of sexual discrimination has been made by rights group China Labour Watch.

CLW published a picture of the recruitment poster put up at the 6,000-strong Tianjin Samsung Telecom Technology factory in northern China, which produces mobile phones. The poster said that only women with no communicable diseases will be considered for new jobs.

It said the poster violates Article 12 of China’s Labour Law, which states: “Labourers shall not be discriminated against in employment, regardless of their ethnic community , race, sex, or religious belief.” It also violates article 30 of Employment Promotion Law, which says: “No employment unit, when recruiting employees, shall refuse to employ a job candidate on the basis that he/she is a carrier of any infectious pathogen.”