China - Increasing use of subcontracted short term labour (2010)

In August, a student part-time worker at a Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Zhejiang was beaten after asking for wage arrears. The student was employed by a labour contract agency and Coca-Cola therefore attempted to deny responsibility for the incident. A Hong Kong labour group reported that almost 50% of workers at the factory were employed by agencies but many worked full time contrary to new laws governing the use of contract labour. The use of subcontracted short term labour is growing.