Building BYD Szeged: Labor risks for Chinese migrant workers in Hungary's EV supply chain
This report documents the working conditions of Chinese migrant workers at the construction site of BYD’s new electric-vehicle manufacturing facility in Szeged, Hungary.
The investigation reveals a pattern of labor rights violations affecting Chinese migrant workers employed through subcontractors and intermediary recruitment agencies. These abuses cluster into three interrelated areas: systematic excessive working hours without adequate rest, coercive and opaque recruitment and management practices, and wage and cost arrangements that, through the withholding of wages and the shifting of recruitment and travel costs to workers, place some migrant workers in situations of heightened vulnerability.
The eleven issues outlined below illustrate these systemic risks which may run contrary to Hungarian law and align with the ILO’s indicators of forced labor:
- Continuous Seven-Day Workweeks with No Guaranteed Rest
- Excessive Hours Amounting to Systematic Overtime Abuse
- Wages Structured to Obscure Overtime Obligations
- Recruitment Fees Creating Debt-Driven Labor Dependence
- Conditional Fee Refunds as a Retention Mechanism
- Illicit Use of Non-Work-Authorized Immigration Status for Full-Time Industrial Labor
- Delayed Wage Payments Among Smaller Subcontractors
- Opaque Employment Relationships
- Company-Directed Instructions to Falsify Working Hours During Inspections
- Inadequate Medical Insurance and Medical Care for Workplace Injuries
- Intimidation and Retaliation
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