Apple manufacturer Foxconn says underage workers used in China

[Ronzkie23]

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Reuters
Posted at 10/17/2012 8:21 AM | Updated as of 10/17/2012 8:23 AM

TAIPEI - Apple Inc's largest contract manufacturer, Foxconn, has acknowledged hiring teenagers as young as 14 in a Chinese factory, in breach of national law, in a case that raises further questions over Foxconn's student intern programme.
Labour rights activists in China have accused Foxconn and other big employers in China of using student interns as a cheap source of labour for production lines that are finding it more difficult to attract young adult workers to lower paid jobs.
Foxconn, the trading name of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, said it had found some interns at a plant in Yantai, in northeastern Shandong province, were under the legal working age of 16. It did not say how many were underage.
"Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks," it said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This is not only a violation of China's labour law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions," it said.
Foxconn made the announcement after investigating Chinese media reports of underage interns among its China workforce of 1.2 million. It said it had found no evidence of similar violations at any of its other plants in China.
Foxconn said it would work with local government to bar the schools involved in the Yantai case from the intern programme unless shown to be compliant with labour law and company policy.
"However, we recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action," the firm said.
It is not clear if the Yantai plant makes Apple products -- Foxconn, the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer, also makes products for Dell Inc, Sony Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co among its other clients.
Foxconn and Apple have been forced to improve working conditions at Chinese factories that make most of the world's iPads and iPhones after a series of well-publicised suicides in 2010 and reports of labour abuses, such as excessive overtime, threw a spotlight on conditions inside the plants.
Last month, a riot broke out at a Foxconn plant assembling iPhones in the northern city of Taiyuan over living conditions inside Foxconn's on-site dormitories for migrant workers.
In response to the scrutiny, Foxconn plans to cut overtime to less than nine hours a week from the current 20.
It defended its intern programme on Tuesday, saying they made up only 2.7 percent of its workforce in China. Internships could be long-term or short-term, carried out in cooperation with vocational schools and other educational institutions.
The average internship lasted about three-and-a-half months, it said.

Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/...ers-used-china

[kit_cebu]

so, a better option would be to let them wander in the streets,do drugs, etc. then?

[MetalManiac]

dugay naman na gihimo sa china siguro karon lang nahibaw-an nila.

[Eve's Apple Project]

sos..maayo nalang na kaysa manglimos sa dan..ila nang choice nga niwork kay wa silay laing masaligan..
sa ato btaw daghan sad kaayo manglilimos sa dan, wa man limpyohi sa gobyerno..wa ra nay kalahian sa china..daghan sad diri ang manglilimos..

[eezychair]

Internship man di.ay na. So ang mga students patrabahoon for 3.5 months. Maayo nalang sad siguro na kay mura sad ug summer job diri sa ato. Ang nakalain lang kay sa ubang internship diri, labi na sa mga nurses (ambot kaha ron ug sige pa), sila pay pabayron sa hospital.

I think internship programs are good, specially that it will expose students to the 'real' world of work and at the same time mu.earn ug pang allowance. Ang lisod lang ug gamiton nga paagi para makakuha lang jud ug cheap labor, lain nasad na.

[Coke Zero]

Yup all of you are right... better work than stay on the streets doing criminal activities... we shoud also do the same here in cebu.... para ma bawasan ang mga snatcher sa downtown...

[kit_cebu]

Yup all of you are right... better work than stay on the streets doing criminal activities... we shoud also do the same here in cebu.... para ma bawasan ang mga snatcher sa downtown...

sadly, Bantay Bata and this nonsense, stupid government branch called Commission on Human Rights would be the first in line to interfere...

optional would be a good one...

optional for the teen to earn to help the family...in such a case should the family be below poverty line...

if the government and/or church can't help, might as well help ourselves using best judgement and capability....

.

[jovipeorliohacokijo]

summer job ra seguro. ok ra man seguro na. ky sa atong kabarangayan, gihimo gani na, apil apil gani ko sauna ky wa man allowance kung wai klase.

[DEMONOCIETY]

Internship man di.ay na. So ang mga students patrabahoon for 3.5 months. Maayo nalang sad siguro na kay mura sad ug summer job diri sa ato. Ang nakalain lang kay sa ubang internship diri, labi na sa mga nurses (ambot kaha ron ug sige pa), sila pay pabayron sa hospital.

I think internship programs are good, specially that it will expose students to the 'real' world of work and at the same time mu.earn ug pang allowance. Ang lisod lang ug gamiton nga paagi para makakuha lang jud ug cheap labor, lain nasad na.

ampay kaayo na sa employer na bisan apprentice ky cheap lagi labi na ang trabaho madala ra jud sa mga y experience dagko na kaayog ngisi ang employer ana abot pa sa dunggan

[butlerana]

Internship man di.ay na. So ang mga students patrabahoon for 3.5 months.