A top official of Samsung Electronics Vietnam has refuted allegations that the South Korean company is mistreating its employees at two factories in the country, as claimed in a report released earlier this week.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday, Bang Hyun Woo, vice general director of Samsung Electronics Vietnam, asserted that the report, authored by Hanoi-based Research Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED) and nonprofit organization IPEN, contains many groundless accusations.

The report combines industrial sector research and qualitative narratives of 45 workers at two Samsung Electronics factories in Vietnam and claims that female workers there are victims of health and workplace violations by the South Korean electronics giant.

Bang Hyun Woo, vice general director of Samsung Electronics Vietnam

‘False and inaccurate information’

Bang told Tuoi Tre that he had read through the IPEN report and asserted that it was done without adequate scientific grounds, as the authors had jumped into conclusion after interviewing only 45 out of 160,000 employees of Samsung Vietnam.

The report claims that extreme fatigue, fainting, and dizziness were reported by all workers in its sample, and miscarriages amongst the Samsung Electronics factory workers were reported as “extremely common” and “even expected.”

According to the report, workers at the two factories are expected to stand throughout their 8-to-12-hour shifts and many are kept on alternating day and night shift schedules, regardless of weekends.

The report also claims that salary deductions were taken from workers who take breaks, including pregnant workers, and that during the few short, limited breaks allowed by the company, workers must request special passes to use the restroom.

The report also proposes the need for further research regarding chemical exposure, considering that assembly line workers are stationed in open factory settings where other workers use a variety of substances.

All of these allegations, according to Bang, have been made on shaky grounds.

Samsung factory workers in Vietnam leave work. Photo: Tuoi Tre

He said it is inaccurate to accuse Samsung Vietnam of not signing contract with its employees, as the South Korean can provide written records to prove the otherwise.

Bang said the allegation that employees must request special passes to use the restroom is a false accusation made from manipulating Google search results.

In 2016, Vietnam’s Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs conducted a study at 17 electronics companies, excluding Samsung, and discovered the so-called ‘restroom permission’ at some of the surveyed firms, according to Bang.

The IPEN appeared to find that information from Google and end up wrongfully linking the phenomenon to Samsung, where no such thing exists, Bang underlined.

The Samsung Vietnam leader also dismissed allegations that the company forces pregnant employees to work standing through their shift. He said pregnant employees can ask to switch into other tasks where they can sit while doing their job and the company will support those requests.

Bang said other claims in the report, such as poor-quality meal, dangerous exposure to chemicals and common miscarriage among female employees, are all groundless and inaccurate.

While Samsung does use chemicals in some parts of production, the situation is not as hazardous as the report claims, he said.

The report alleges that some female employees could not become pregnant as they have to pass X-ray security screening to enter and leave the factory. Bang said if the scanning system is so dangerous, all employees at airports must have been similarly affected.

A worker goes through security scan before leaving a Samsung factory in Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Sweden-based IPEN is a global network of environment and health non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to reduce the use of harmful chemicals throughout the world.

The Vietnamese labor ministry said earlier this week it would work with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Hanoi to investigate the IPEN report.

However, the ILO in Hanoi said on Friday it had been briefed of the report but would not start discussing the issue with the Vietnamese government at the moment, as it has received no official request from the labor ministry.