Outside a factory in Dongguan, a city in China’s manufacturing heartlands, school buses drop off children whose parents work at the Maisto toy factory, which manufactures Bburago collectable cars and radio-controlled vehicles.
About 120 children live in dormitories on the factory site. About 40 per cent of Maisto’s 3,000 workers live with partners and children and some of the dormitories, designed for young single workers, are being revamped to make them more suitable for families.
If the toy factory is to retain workers in China’s new era of persistent labour shortages, then this kind of investment is necessary, says manager Michael Liu.