Kids aged SIX making toys for Kinder Eggs as ‘slave’ workers are paid just 22p-an-hour for 13 hour shifts
The 80p treats are put together in filthy working conditions by poor families who endure long hours which end up in products for confectionery giant Ferrero
KIDS as young as six are among tragic "slave" workers making Kinder Egg toys, The Sun can reveal.
Families toil at their ramshackle homes in poor hygiene in Romania assembling the treats loved by millions of British children.
And desperately poor adult home workers are labouring up to 13 hours a day for 22p-an-hour making toys for chocolate giant Ferrero.
Christian Juri, whose children Patrick, 11, and Hannah, six, help put together the toys, insisted: "It's slave labour."
The 80p treats, put together in filthy working conditions, end up in products for the confectionery company famed for its Ferrero Rocher.
A Kinder whistleblower said: “If the bosses at Ferrero knew what was going on in Romania they would have a heart attack.
“Customers would expect products which go inside children’s chocolates to be made in controlled conditions.
“But so many of the toys are being made in people’s homes that effective quality control is impossible.
“Ferrero may not be getting what they pay for and middle men somewhere must be making a killing off the back of people being treated like slaves.”
Among them are Timea Jurj, 30, her husband Christian, 41, children Patrick, 11, Hannah, six, and Timea’s niece Tamara, also six.
They are paid 20 Romanian Lei — around £3.80 — for every 1,000 completed eggs they deliver to a factory in Carei near the border with Hungary.
Timea said: “I know the pay is terrible but I don’t have any choice but to do this.
“We have to get money to eat and look after our children.”
Market trader Christian said: “It’s slave labour but what else can you do when you have no choice. When you see the way we live here you must understand why it it is our dream to come to the UK.”
The family are supplied with eggs and plastic parts by a firm called Prolegis, a sub-contractor for Romexa SA.
When approached by The Sun a supervisor ran away and locked the factory door. Within an hour a taxi arrived at the Jurj family home.
The driver told them to hand over all unfinished eggs and toy parts saying: “This work is over.”
Another Kinder “slave” in Carei is Felicia Indrea, 49. She is paid 14 Romanian Lei, £2.66, for a bag of completed toys.
The heavy smoker has callouses on her fingers after working 13 hours a day for two years. Felicia said: “Sometimes I think I will go crazy doing this work — I even see the toys in my dreams.
“The pay is terrible but I have no choice.
"Children love Kinder Eggs and I’m glad my toys make them happy but it is very tough for us.”
Related Stories
In the town of Tasnad, 20 miles away, mechanic Cori Biro, in his 40s, collected ten bags of toy pieces from the Adontradenet factory, another firm sub-contracted by Romexa.
With filthy fingers, he showed us how to assemble a Kinder crocodile toy.
He said his wife, in the nearby village of Piru Nou, would be paid around 20 Lei, around £3.80, per bag.
Cori said: “The pay is very bad but we are very poor and need the money.”
Daniel Muresan, area manager for Romexa SA, insisted he had no idea work was being outsourced. He said: “This is the first I have heard of it but I will find out who is responsible and the factories involved will have their contracts terminated if this is found to be true.
“These pictures suggest we have a big problem and this is something we will take very seriously indeed.”
Prolegis, with 130 employees, turned over £627,000 last year.
Factory boss Marcel Bront said: “We are not giving toy parts to anyone outside the factory. Those toys must be from somewhere else.”
Adontradenet received a £200,000 EU grant to boost fledgling manufacturing businesses in Romania last year.
Owner Adi Nemes said last night: “The toys were not from my factory. Other factories in the area must be the source.”
Romexa SA, whose millionaire boss also owns a shopping mall, has just eight registered employees but had a turnover of £3.63million in 2015.
Thulsi Narayanasamy, of campaigners War on Want, said: “It’s not that companies like Ferrero are not aware of the abuse of children that sustain their profits, they simply don’t care.”
Labour MP and Shadow Home Affairs Minister Carolyn Harris said: “My own children grew up loving Kinder toys, I’m horrified something so innocent is the product of what in reality is child slavery.”
Prof Adam Hart, of the University of Gloucestershire, warned that products handled in “contaminated environments” could put children at risk of food poisoning.
In a statement Ferrero said it banned the use of children in factories and guaranteed employees the minimum wage.
It claimed suppliers Romexa and Prolegis passed a strict audit inspection in May.
A spokesman said: “All our suppliers are subject to regular independent checks to ensure that they observe the terms of our strict Code of Conduct.
“We will investigate these new allegations fully in order to ensure that our Code of Conduct is being strictly observed.”
Real-life Willy Wonka behind chocolate firm
By RHODRI PHILLIPS, Business Editor
KINDER Egg’s maker Ferrero is the world’s third biggest chocolate company, with £8billion of sales a year globally.
The Italian firm, also behind Ferrero Rocher, Nutella and Tic Tacs, is notoriously secretive and has its HQ in tax haven Luxembourg.
Founder Michele Ferrero, who died last year aged 89, was dubbed the real life Willy Wonka with a fortune of £17billion.
Kinder Surprise Chocolate Eggs were launched in 1974, with Michele telling staff he wanted to “make it Easter every day”.
Since then the firm has sold more than 30billion eggs. In the UK around 50million, costing 80p each, are sold each year.
Kinder Eggs are banned in the US because, under a 1938 law, officials considered them “too dangerous to children to be imported legally”.
US Customs and Border Protection seized 60,000 in 2011.
Michele Ferrero was Italy’s richest man and used to commute to work by helicopter from his Monte Carlo villa.
He visited the Lourdes shrine to the Virgin Mary in France at least once a year and ordered statues of the Madonna to be placed in each of his offices worldwide.
Ferrero, which has 33,000 staff in its 38 trading companies and 18 factories, was set up by Michele’s father Pietro in Piedmont in 1946.