Disney scraps business deal with Chinese toymaker

Beijing, Nov 30 (IANS) US multinational Walt Disney has broken ties with a Chinese toymaker after receiving reports that it flouted labour standards, the company said in a statement.

Disney announced it was breaking ties with the Dongguan Qing Xi Juantiway Plastic Factory, but did not provide details about the irregularities, Efe news reported on Wednesday.

The factory that manufactures figures of Disney characters, committed the labour violations, reported a New York-based non-profit China Labor Watch.

The multinational also said that another Chinese manufacturer, Lam Sun Toy Limited, was also not complying with practices regarding record-keeping, health, fire safety and human resources.

Lam Sun will have the opportunity to maintain its contracts with Disney if it addresses these problems, Walt Disney added.

The US company also rued that China Labor Watch did not contact them directly, preferring instead to report such irregularities through press releases.

In 2015, the non-profit organisation released a report detailing breaches by five toymakers in China, all of which had contracts with Disney and other companies.

Disney approved its plan for international labour standards in 1996 and has 120 employees in 12 countries, tasked with improving the working conditions of over 30,000 factories associated with it.

Close to 28 per cent of the plants working with Disney are located in China.

The Walt Disney Company is headquartered in Burbank in California and is the world’s largest entertainment company.

In 2016 fiscal, the company posted a profit of $9.391 billion, a 12 per cent jump over 2015, and its total turnover rose to $55.632 billion.