An international labor rights organization has raised serious allegations of labor exploitation in the supply chain of Labubu toys, the viral product that took global markets by storm last year and is expected to continue growing in 2026. According to data published by China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based NGO, one of the suppliers of Chinese toy company Pop Mart has systematically violated workers’ rights. It is the Shunjia Toys factory in Jiangxi province, in southeastern China, reports The Guardian.
CLW’s three-month investigation in 2025 included interviews with over 50 workers, including three minors aged 16 and 17. Although employment of this age group is permitted under Chinese law, it requires special safeguards, which the report says were not respected.
Child workers were placed on standard production lines, with the same workload and objectives as adult workers. CLW points out that many of them did not understand the nature of the contracts they had signed and were unclear about their legal status. Another serious violation is related to the signing of blank contracts. According to evidence, workers were only asked to fill in personal details, while key elements such as salary, job description, contract term and social security were left blank.
In the face of high global demand for Labubu, workers reported extremely high production targets: teams of 25–30 people had to assemble over 4 toys per day. Meanwhile, although Chinese law limits monthly overtime to 36 hours, CLW found cases where workers were working over 100 hours per month. The Shunjia Toys factory has an official capacity of 12 million toys per year, but interviews suggest that actual production is much higher. Just two teams, according to estimates, produced over 24 million units per year.