The world’s largest software maker was responding to a report from the National Labor Committee, a nonprofit organization that looks into the treatment of foreign workers by US companies. The group published a report detailing long working hours, low pay, insufficient food and few freedoms for workers at the KYE Systems factory in Dongguan, China.
The factory makes Microsoft-brand webcams, computer mice and Xbox controllers.
Included in the report are claims that 16- and 17-year-olds work 15-hour shifts for about 50 cents an hour, are prohibited from talking or using the bathroom during working hours, sleep crammed in 14-person dorm rooms and are only allowed to leave the factory grounds at certain times.
Manufacturing Net said that the software maker said a team of independent auditors are headed to the KYE factory, and it will place monitors at the factory pending results of its inspection.