THE Catholic development agency, Trocaire, has initiated a pre Christmas campaign against the exploitation of workers and unsafe and unhealthy conditions in Asian toy factories.
"Many of the toys being sold this Christmas in Irish shops - toys like Barbie dolls, Action Man, Polly Pocket and Disney toys - are made in countries like China and Thailand," Ms Annette Honan, Trocaire campaigns officer, said yesterday.
"The large transnational companies which make them have moved their manufacturing bases from Europe and the US to these Asian countries, relocating where they find the cheapest labour in their attempts to shave costs to the bone. Wages are slashed and workers' health and safety are jeopardised in order to remain competitive."
She pointed to the example of the Dynamic Toy Company in Thailand, which has the highest production of stuffed toys and Barbie dolls of any factory in the world. It has been working overtime to produce 4,000 toy Dalmatian dogs a day for Disney's 101 Dalmatians film.
More than 80 per cent of Dynamic's workers, the great majority of them women, are employed on a temporary four month basis at £3.50 per day and 75p per hour overtime. They have no contracts are afraid to join a union for fear of being sacked and blacklisted for future employment and work in conditions where they inhale noxious chemicals and lack adequate ventilation.
Some Dynamic workers worked previously in the Kader toy plant, where in 1993 the world's worst factory fire killed 188 people.
Trocaire is distributing post cards to Irish shoppers to be handed to the managers of toy shops, asking them to raise these concerns with suppliers and to reassure shoppers that their toys have been safely produced. The cards point out that international codes of conduct have been signed by toy manufacturers, but these are useless if not enforced.
Trocaire suggests that shoppers should ask retailers whether they or their suppliers have signed a code of contact which pledges to protect the workers' health and safety, and what steps they have taken to ensure it is enforced".
It also asks people to write to the embassy of China, the world's largest toy manufacturer, raising these concerns. It also asks them to buy Irish or toys and dolls made by small community groups in Kenya and distributed by Trocaire.