In an article published by Financial Times, it talks about the alleged production of Apple’s iPhone X in the Asian region hiring college students to illegally work overtime. This was done to meet the growing demands of the iPhone X after incurring numerous production delays.
The facility in question who’s in charge of supplying iPhone’s around Asia is Taiwan-based Apple supplier, Hoi Han Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn. A total of 3,000 students from the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School were sent to the facility in September. Six students from the total of 3,000 told the Financial Times that they frequently work 11-hour shifts assembling the iPhone X.
In a move that can be considered questionable at best, the students aged 17 – 19, were told that a three-month work period at the facility was compulsory as it counted as “work experience”. The students had to complete the stint in order to graduate. This is a violation of for student interns under Chinese law to work overtime illegally. Sadly, Malaysian labour laws aren’t as strict, so if Apple and Foxconn wanted to outsource their manufacturing line, they should’ve came to Malaysia.
When asked about the complaints, both Apple and Foxconn said that they have discovered several cases of students being forced to illegally work overtime and were taking immediate action. However, they also pointed out that the students who were hired to work at the facility were doing so voluntarily. Interesting. Foxconn also spoke about how students voluntarily signed up to be part of the facility and were compensated appropriately without working overtime, which is a violation to its policy.
According to a long-time Foxconn employee in the article, the facility hires students every year during its busy season between August and December. The employee also mentioned about the increase of labour in the plant from 100,000 to 300,000, making up to 20,000 iPhones a day.
If this sounds all too familiar, it’s because another popular smartphone brand was brought to light on similar accusations. The brand in blue has gone through its own fair share of accusations over the years on numerous occasions, one of which even occurred in Malaysia for that matter.
(Source: Financial Times, The Guardian 1, 2 and BusinessInsider)
