The Volkswagen stands near the cranes of a construction site in Wolfsburg, Germany. File photo: CFP

An audit on Volkswagen's jointly owned plant in Northwest China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region found no indications of any use of forced labor, the automaker said on Tuesday.

The audit was carried by Loening - Human Rights & Responsible Business GmbH, among the site's 197 employees in SAIC-Volkswagen (Xinjiang) Automotive Co, a 100 percent subsidiary of the SAIC Volkswagen Co.

The audit work encompassed on-site document checks in Urumqi city as well as interviews with staff and executives of the legal entity in Xinjiang.

Several on-site inspections, including walkabouts of the outdoor premises of the plant were also part of the auditing process.

As of November 1, 2023, the legal entity had 197 employees, of which 150 employees are of Han ethnicity, accounting for 76.1 percent, and 23.9 percent of employees belong to ethnic minorities including Uygurs.

Loening said that the employees are qualified, having worked in the company for a long time of up to 10 years, have a low work intensity and are being remunerated above the average in the region. Overtime work is next to non-existent.

There were no indications of any use of forced labor among the employees at the plant, it said.

Data collected shows that all employees have signed employment contracts with the joint venture, with no agency contracts, and have been employed at the plant for more than four years, and 76 percent having worked there for 8-10 years.

Reuters reported that earlier this year, Volkswagen investors demanded that the automaker request cooperation from SAIC to conduct an independent audit of labor conditions at the Xinjiang plant.

The Chinese government has refuted disinformation involving the "forced labor" in Xinjiang, which is fabricated by some countries.

China firmly opposes any force attacking and smearing China under the pretext of human rights, pointing fingers at the human rights situation in Xinjiang, Chinese Foreign Ministry said on November 8, in response to the joint declaration issued at the "International Uyghur Forum" against China on human rights in Xinjiang.

Volkswagen's China chief Ralf Brandstaetter said there is no evidence of human rights violations or forced labor when he toured the site in February.

Loening said the actual audit execution was undertaken by a Shenzhen law firm with extensive experience in social audits and international and Chinese labor law and were accompanied on-site by Loening.

Loening said it has applied the internationally renowned Audit Standard SA8000. SA8000 has been developed by Social Accountability International and covers the following topics: child labor, forced labor, occupational health and safety, freedom of (union) association, discrimination, physical or psychological punishment, working hours, income levels and management systems.

Global Times