The National Labor Committee said the independence of the accounting firm, Virite, which claims to be a US-based nonprofit social training and auditing firm, cannot be ascertained as it depends on corporate grants. Virite would not comment.

The NLC is an independent human rights organization based in the United States which helps defend the human rights of workers in the global economy.

The committee urged Hong Kong Disneyland to open its contractors' factories to a concern group, Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, an organization founded in June this year, so that it can train the workers to monitor factory conditions.

``The best monitors in the world are the workers themselves,''said NLC senior associate Barbara Briggs.

She also called on the theme park to disclose the names and addresses of the factories it uses in China to make Disney goods as a sign of good faith and to assure the public it is not trying to hide sweatshop conditions.

Briggs said the recent research by Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, which first highlighted the alleged sweatshop conditions, had been spread over a period of several months. More than 120 workers were interviewed, while Disney conducts just one or two factory audits a year.

In a report released in New York, the NLC alleged that factory workers in China are pressed to work 10 to 13 hours a day, six to seven days a week, producing Disney's children's books .

The NLC report followed the August 18 statement by the local concern group which alleged that workers in printing factories across the border are underpaid, receiving an hourly wage of 2.7 yuan (HK$2.59) instead of the legal wage of 3.33 to 3.43 yuan.

Disneyland spokeswoman Alannah Goss said the group took seriously the claims raised by the National Labor Committee and that Disney will work closely with Verite to ensure a thorough investigation of these claims.

Disney will also work with civil society organizations in China to determine whether a role in the investigation, or any subsequent remedial effort, would be appropriate, Goss said.

Briggs said, however, that inspections by Disney are announced in advance and that worker interviews are carried out inside the factory.

Under such conditions, workers may be inhibited for fear of losing their jobs after the auditors leave the factory.

However, one of the Shenzhen factories named in the concern group's survey, Hung Hing Printing Group, said in a statement released on August 20 that the allegations were not true.

It also dismissed claims that it was playing down injury reports, that it was using unsafe machinery and that it had underpaid its workers.

``We have customer inspections every month and, during these visits, our customers are able to talk to any of our 15,000 workers at random,'' the statement said.

Another factory named in the report, Nord Race Paper Company, also denied claims it underpaid and overworked its workers.

It said industrial accidents were rare and that injured staff could get adequate compensation.

The Shenzhen Labor Department said workers in the administrative region were protected by law and could not work for more than eight hours a day. They were also assured a minimum salary of 574 yuan a month.

wendy.leung@singtaonewscorp.com