Senators seek details from U.S. electronics firm on Uyghur labor (updated)

Universal Electronics

20/10/2021 19:05

(Adds company comment)
    By Patricia Zengerle
    WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A group of Democratic and
Republican U.S. senators wrote to remote-control maker Universal
Electronics Inc  UEIC.O  on Wednesday about concerns the
Arizona-based company could be implicated in the mistreatment of
Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region.
    The letter cited a Reuters report https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-us-electronics-firm-struck-deal-transport-hire-uyghur-workers-2021-10-07
 earlier this month that Universal (UEI) struck a deal with
authorities in Xinjiang to transport hundreds of Uyghur workers
to its plant in the southern Chinese city of Qinzhou. There,
workers live in segregated dormitories, are continuously
surveilled by police, and are made to participate in government
"education activities," Reuters reported.
    "We believe these conditions bear obvious signs of forced
labor," said Democratic Senators Bob Menendez and Jeff Merkley
and Republican Senator Marco Rubio in the letter to UEI Chief
Executive Paul Arling.
    Menendez chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rubio and Merkley are members of the panel.
    "We are especially troubled that Universal Electronics
appears to have done little to investigate or remedy the
situation," the letter added.
    UEI had told Reuters the company employs 365 Uyghur workers
at the Qinzhou plant. It said it treated them the same as other
workers in China and did not regard any employees as forced
labor.
    UEI said on Wednesday it had ended its relationship with the
staffing company that hired the workers, and said it looked
forward to working with the three senators on the questions
raised in the letter.
    "UEI made the decision last week to end its relationship
with the staffing agency that hired these workers based on
feedback on how to best secure its supply chain and in light of
ongoing regulatory and legislative changes globally," a company
spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
    The Nasdaq-listed firm, which has sold its equipment and
software to Sony, Samsung, LG, Microsoft and other companies,
also it does not conduct independent due diligence on where and
how its workers are trained in Xinjiang. It said the arrangement
is vetted by a third-party agent, which it declined to name,
working with the Xinjiang government.
    In the letter to Arling, the U.S. senators cited State
Department findings that Chinese authorities use threats of
physical violence, forcible drug intake, physical and sexual
abuse, and torture to force detainees to work in adjacent or
off-site factories or worksites.
    The letter asked UEI to provide, no later than Nov. 5,
information including the text of its 2019 agreement with the
Xinjiang government regarding Uyghur laborers, the number of
Uyghurs employed in China and documentation to support the
company's assertion that none of its labor is forced.
    The senators also asked for details of employee training
programs related to forced labor and human trafficking, records
of audits of facilities in China, and the content of any
disclosure to shareholders about the use of transferred Uyghur
laborers.
    

 (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle;
Editing by Mary Milliken, Jane Wardell and Richard Chang)
 ((patricia.zengerle@thomsonreuters.com,
www.twitter.com/ReutersZengerle; 001-202-898-8390;))