Local labour laws were violated at the factory of biggest manufacturing partner of smartphone maker Apple in China as both the companies said in a statement recently that they had discovered a small number of students who had been working overtime at this Chinese unit.
Apple has confirmed that a plant run by Hon Hai Precision Co Ltd, also known as Foxconn, was the place where students worked, as a part of a school internship program, for more then 11 hours on a voluntary basis.
“We discovered instances of student interns working overtime at a supplier facility in China. We’ve confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime,” Apple said in a statement.
This is not the first instance that the two companies - Apple and Foxconn, have faced such allegations. Problems related to poor labor practices had surfaced in the past also. But through the process of conducting regular surveys and evaluation of its suppliers’ factories and publishing the same in the form of annual reviews of the iPhone supply chain, the U.S. technology giant has of late, been attempting to get a grip and control and reduce such issues.
The timing of the labor law violation announcement is also uniquely timed because Apple has been overloaded with orders for iPhone X and has been stretching its production processes to meet the rising demands for the latest iPhone, shipping of which has begun this month.
For the six students who worked at the factory in China, it was reported that they needed to undergo the program for them to graduate, said a news report published in Financial Times earlier.
The school had forced the students, who were aged between 17 and 19 years, to participate in the program, the FT report said.
“Our policies do not allow interns to work more than 40 hours per week on program-related assignments. Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where portions of our campuses have not adhered to this policy,” Foxconn said in a statement. The company also added just a very small portion of the workforce at the factory was made up of the students.
Apple staff had been sent to the site for addressing the violations, Apple said in a statement.
Allegations about failing its employees to provide health insurance, hiring of undergraduate workers and forcing employee for excessive overtime have earlier been labelled and against Apple and Foxconn and the companies have been criticized by labor rights groups.
Including in the sites where rare earth minerals are mined for use in the smartphones, reduction in the number of underaged workers in its extended workforce have been done by Appel since 2012.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Apple has confirmed that a plant run by Hon Hai Precision Co Ltd, also known as Foxconn, was the place where students worked, as a part of a school internship program, for more then 11 hours on a voluntary basis.
“We discovered instances of student interns working overtime at a supplier facility in China. We’ve confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime,” Apple said in a statement.
This is not the first instance that the two companies - Apple and Foxconn, have faced such allegations. Problems related to poor labor practices had surfaced in the past also. But through the process of conducting regular surveys and evaluation of its suppliers’ factories and publishing the same in the form of annual reviews of the iPhone supply chain, the U.S. technology giant has of late, been attempting to get a grip and control and reduce such issues.
The timing of the labor law violation announcement is also uniquely timed because Apple has been overloaded with orders for iPhone X and has been stretching its production processes to meet the rising demands for the latest iPhone, shipping of which has begun this month.
For the six students who worked at the factory in China, it was reported that they needed to undergo the program for them to graduate, said a news report published in Financial Times earlier.
The school had forced the students, who were aged between 17 and 19 years, to participate in the program, the FT report said.
“Our policies do not allow interns to work more than 40 hours per week on program-related assignments. Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where portions of our campuses have not adhered to this policy,” Foxconn said in a statement. The company also added just a very small portion of the workforce at the factory was made up of the students.
Apple staff had been sent to the site for addressing the violations, Apple said in a statement.
Allegations about failing its employees to provide health insurance, hiring of undergraduate workers and forcing employee for excessive overtime have earlier been labelled and against Apple and Foxconn and the companies have been criticized by labor rights groups.
Including in the sites where rare earth minerals are mined for use in the smartphones, reduction in the number of underaged workers in its extended workforce have been done by Appel since 2012.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
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