Apple Supplier Foxconn Halts Interns' Illegal Overtime at iPhone X Factory in China

[MacRumors]

Apple supplier Foxconn says it has stopped interns from working illegal overtime at its factory in China, after reports emerged that at least six students worked eleven-hour days on iPhone X production lines.

Today's announcement follows a Financial Times report earlier this week that revealed around 3,000 students worked at its iPhone X assembly plant in Zhengzhou, as the firm struggles to catch up with demand for the smartphone after production delays.

A worker assembles iPhones in a Foxconn factory​

Apple on Tuesday said an audit had confirmed "instances" of student interns working overtime at the supplier facility in Henan province, and both Apple and Foxconn said they would take remedial action to stop the practice, which breaches Chinese laws preventing children from working more than 40 hours per week.

"Apple is dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," the tech giant said today in a statement given to the BBC. "We know our work is never done and we'll continue to do all we can to make a positive impact and protect workers in our supply chain."

Foxconn, which operates the intern program, told the BBC in a statement that it had taken "immediate action to ensure that no interns are carrying out any overtime work". It added that "interns represent a very small percentage" of its workforce in China and that the breach of labour laws was inconsistent with its own policies.

Foxconn is thought to hire large numbers of seasonal workers each year to assemble the latest iPhone models in time for the busy holiday shopping season. The FT report, citing an anonymous Foxconn employee, said there can be up to 20,000 workers producing up to 300,000 iPhones per day. However, this year it appears the manufacturer has found it particularly challenging to keep up with demand for the iPhone X, which Apple has described as being "off the charts".

As per its supplier responsibility efforts, Apple requires manufacturing partners like Foxconn to limit working hours to no more than 60 hours a week, with a mandatory rest day once every seven days.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Supplier Foxconn Halts Interns' Illegal Overtime at iPhone X Factory in China

 

[roberthodgson]

“said there can be up to 300,000 workers producing up to 20,000 iPhones per day.”
I think you reversed the numers at 20,000 phones per day Apple would be backordered for years

 

[iPhysicist]

That’s the spirit! You can achieve everything in life if you work hard enough. That’s how you get this iPhone X backlog down to zero within weeks. Thank you Chinese students for your service! Thank you.

 

[Aluminum213]

With demand so low for the iPhone X, Foxconn doesn’t need a fraction of the workers

 

[jonnysods]

How benevolent of Foxconn. They only stopped it when they got busted.

 

[MrGuder]

This is terrible news...Tim arrives at factory and gets great reports everything is running as it should press shows he is extremely happy. Then.....when he leaves and no one is around to monitor time passes and they do their own thing and this is how illegal overtime happens, working people to the bone and paying very little. I think of these things every time I hold me iPhone 6s. This would never happen in the USA.

 

[nxent]

maybe apple should re-evaluate foxconn. it’s frustrating these reports keep surfacing.

 

[ThomasJL]

What makes this sweatshop labor situation even more disgusting is that it is intentionally ignored by Apple's SJW CEO Tim Cook who simultaneously engages in constant virtue signaling.

 

[justperry]

citing an anonymous Foxconn employee, said there can be up to 20,000 workers producing up to 300,000 iPhones per day.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...time-to-assemble-iphone-x-at-foxconn.2090108/

The report, citing an anonymous Foxconn employee, said there can be up to 300,000 workers producing up to 20,000 iPhones per day.

Just for your information:
Both me and @davie18 reported the mistake in above topic from Tuesday yet nobody took action, it was a clear mistake on MR's side.

 

[69650]

They only acted when they got found out. Thank heavens for investigative journalists.

 

[gnasher729]

I think some common sense is needed here. There were no children involved. In the UK, for employment someone under 14 is a child and not allowed to work. Someone below school leaving age is allowed to do light work. Someone above school leaving age but below 18 is allowed to work 40 hours a week. At 18, that person is an adult and there are no limits on work time except for EU law. On the other hand, the UK is a country that allows ****** "zero-hour contracts", in other words, you never know how many hours you will work and how much money you will be paid in any week. It might be zero - that's what "zero hours" means. Try to live with that.

The people that we are talking about here are 17 to 19 years old. So the 18 and 19 years old are legally allowed to work overtime. There is an agreement between Apple and Foxconn that interns are not allowed to work overtime. If an 18 or 19 year old intern works overtime, that's in breach of their agreement, but not illegal.

And a 17 year old? They were offered overtime - which shouldn't have happened. The voluntarily accepted that offer, worked overtime, and got paid for it. Compare that to the USA, where companies _love_ to declare their employees as exempt, which means in practice unvoluntary and unpaid overtime. Many employees in the USA would be only to happy if their boss had to ask them if they want to do overtime and they could say "no", and if their boss then had to pay for that overtime.

They only acted when they got found out. Thank heavens for investigative journalists.

Well, they got found out because Apple performs regular audits, and some eagle eyed auditor paid by Apple or Foxconn spotted that some interns did overtime. No investigative journalist involved in this.

What makes this sweatshop labor situation even more disgusting is that it is intentionally ignored by Apple's SJW CEO Tim Cook who simultaneously engages in constant virtue signaling.

Yes, Apple's CEO, who is ordering and paying for the audits and then reporting when something wrong is found, is obviously intentionally ignoring this. Without Apple's audits, you wouldn't have heard of this.

maybe apple should re-evaluate foxconn. it’s frustrating these reports keep surfacing.

These reports keep surfacing because Apple performs audits and publishes the results. Foxconn has over a million employees. If these six are the only problematic cases, then Foxconn is a shining example that many, many employers should try to follow.

This would never happen in the USA.

Do you actually believe this? Seriously? In the USA, where in most places an employee can be fired on the spot because the boss doesn't like his face, this isn't happening? Look at this report: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/fair-dismissal-for-refusal-to-work-christmas-overtime/ Apparently, in the USA you don't have the right to refuse overtime.

 

[MH01]

Welcome to capitalism . Good to see the audits do happen and are actioned

 

[Mike MA]

What makes this sweatshop labor situation even more disgusting is that it is intentionally ignored by Apple's SJW CEO Tim Cook who simultaneously engages in constant virtue signaling.

I wouldn‘t say it’s being ignored to be fair, but surely somehow tolerated especially in month with some heavy backlogs like currently.

 

[pubwvj]

How unfortunate that the liberals and government step into separate the worker from the opportunity to earn more money. Classic I suppose - gov and libs know more than people who are actually doing stuff, or so they think. When I was a student I worked up to 160 hours a week during rush periods at a slaughterhouse. It was incredibly good money and only went on for a limited period of about eight weeks a year. With heavy handed oversight like this I would have been prevented from earning money that put me through college. I would far rather work long hours for a short period than all year long. This way I could study more during the terms. Bad gov, bad libs.

 

[bopajuice]

I think some common sense is needed here. There were no children involved. In the UK, for employment someone under 14 is a child and not allowed to work. Someone below school leaving age is allowed to do light work. Someone above school leaving age but below 18 is allowed to work 40 hours a week. At 18, that person is an adult and there are no limits on work time except for EU law. On the other hand, the UK is a country that allows ****** "zero-hour contracts", in other words, you never know how many hours you will work and how much money you will be paid in any week. It might be zero - that's what "zero hours" means. Try to live with that.

The people that we are talking about here are 17 to 19 years old. So the 18 and 19 years old are legally allowed to work overtime. There is an agreement between Apple and Foxconn that interns are not allowed to work overtime. If an 18 or 19 year old intern works overtime, that's in breach of their agreement, but not illegal.

And a 17 year old? They were offered overtime - which shouldn't have happened. The voluntarily accepted that offer, worked overtime, and got paid for it. Compare that to the USA, where companies _love_ to declare their employees as exempt, which means in practice unvoluntary and unpaid overtime. Many employees in the USA would be only to happy if their boss had to ask them if they want to do overtime and they could say "no", and if their boss then had to pay for that overtime.


Well, they got found out because Apple performs regular audits, and some eagle eyed auditor paid by Apple or Foxconn spotted that some interns did overtime. No investigative journalist involved in this.


Yes, Apple's CEO, who is ordering and paying for the audits and then reporting when something wrong is found, is obviously intentionally ignoring this. Without Apple's audits, you wouldn't have heard of this.


These reports keep surfacing because Apple performs audits and publishes the results. Foxconn has over a million employees. If these six are the only problematic cases, then Foxconn is a shining example that many, many employers should try to follow.


Do you actually believe this? Seriously? In the USA, where in most places an employee can be fired on the spot because the boss doesn't like his face, this isn't happening? Look at this report: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/fair-dismissal-for-refusal-to-work-christmas-overtime/ Apparently, in the USA you don't have the right to refuse overtime.

"Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School, required them to work at the factory for three months as work experience before they could graduate. One 18-year-old said, "We are being forced by our school to work here... The work has nothing to do with our studies."

 

[gnasher729]

"Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School, required them to work at the factory for three months as work experience before they could graduate. One 18-year-old said, "We are being forced by our school to work here... The work has nothing to do with our studies."

My heart bleeds. I'm forced to work every week day, so I can buy the stuff I want. Feed my wife and kids, that kind of stuff. Well, not really forced, there are plenty of lazy people in the UK who have finessed to art of extracting maximum benefits without doing any work. I can't do that.

Plenty of people are required to have work experience. Some students in Europe are forced to actually have one year of work experience in a foreign country. And if you read the articles again, NOBODY was forced to work overtime. BTW. the amount of overtime these kids did in 3 months, I have actually once done that in two weeks. It paid, but I wouldn't do it again.

 

[bopajuice]

My heart bleeds. I'm forced to work every week day, so I can buy the stuff I want. Feed my wife and kids, that kind of stuff. Well, not really forced, there are plenty of lazy people in the UK who have finessed to art of extracting maximum benefits without doing any work. I can't do that.

Plenty of people are required to have work experience. Some students in Europe are forced to actually have one year of work experience in a foreign country. And if you read the articles again, NOBODY was forced to work overtime. BTW. the amount of overtime these kids did in 3 months, I have actually once done that in two weeks. It paid, but I wouldn't do it again.

What is your interest in this? You seem to know a lot of details about the inner workings and the people involved at FoxConn... Why are you so intent on playing down the working conditions at their factories?