Skip to main content

Apple supplier Foxconn said it will stop using illegal intern labour to assemble the iPhone X (AAPL)


Apple supplier Foxconn has admitted to using illegal intern labour to assemble the iPhone X.
Students said they worked 11-hour days, which is a breach of Chinese labour law.
The scandal comes after Apple reportedly faced delays in getting the iPhone X to customers.

Apple supplier Foxconn has said that it will stop using illegal intern labour in its factories that are used to assemble technology products for some of the world's biggest companies, according to a report by BBC News.

Foxconn's use of interns on its production lines was first reported by The Financial Times. Six students told the newspaper that they regularly work 11-hour shifts assembling Apple's new iPhone X, which is a breach of Chinese labour law. The Financial Times said that a group of 3,000 interns worked in Foxconn's factories.

The students, who were reportedly aged between 17 and 19, told The Financial Times that their work at Foxconn was work experience that they had to do in order to complete their education.

Now, Foxconn has told BBC News that it has ended its practice of letting interns work overtime. The company reportedly said that it took "immediate action to ensure that no interns are carrying out any overtime work," and claimed that "interns represent a very small percentage" of its overall workforce.

Apple told BBC News that it is "dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. 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."

It's an embarrassing story for Apple, which has regularly faced criticism over the supply chain of its products. Apple had to ask Chinese mining company Huayou to stop using child labour after Sky News found it was using children aged four to mine for the material.

Foxconn has faced its own issues in the past: In 2010 a series of employees committed suicide after working long hours in the factory, which eventually lead to the company erecting suicide nets on its buildings to prevent future deaths.

The iPhone X faced production problems
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo covers Apple's supply chain in Asia and regularly covered delays with the iPhone X. He said that Apple faced shortages on key components of the device, which meant that it struggled to get the phones it needed ready for when it went on sale.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about the potential of delays to the iPhone X in an interview with BuzzFeed. The executive gave a rather diplomatic answer: "We'll see what happens, but we'll be working as hard as possible to make as many as possible.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

President of Iran Declares End of ISIS

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran on Tuesday declared the end of Islamic State in an address broadcast live on state TV. A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, also declared the end of Islamic State in a message sent to the country’s supreme leader Tuesday which was published on Sepah News, the news site of the Guards. Videos and pictures of Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside of Iran’s borders, at frontline positions in battles against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been posted frequently by Iranian media in recent years. On Friday, Iranian media published pictures of Soleimani Kamal in eastern Syria, a town which Soleimani said Tuesday was the last territory retaken from Islamic State control in the region. The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful military force which also oversees an economic empire worth billions of dollars, has been fighting in support of S...

EPL: Kelechi Iheanacho might be available for sale in January – Leicester City boss, Puel

Leicester City manager, Claude Puel, has hinted at the possibility of selling Nigeria star Kelechi Iheanacho four weeks before the winter transfer market opens for business. The Foxes have six strikers in the first team consisting of Iheanacho, Vardy, Ahmed Musa, Slimani, Okazaki and Ulloa, and the former Man City starlet has found game time hard to come by after making only two starts in the Premier League from a possible fifteen. Speaking to Leicester Mercury, Puel said: “Kelechi had an injury and for the moment, we have competition. “I am happy with Jamie for example. Kelechi or other players cannot play on the side. “It’s difficult for them, but for me also to manage all these players because we have six strikers so there is no place for all the players.” Iheanacho penned a five-year contract with Leicester City in the summer for a fee in the region of 25 million pounds.

Tech How Alibaba turned an obscure, made-up Chinese holiday into a $17.8 billion shopping extravaganza that's bigger than Black Friday

Alibaba raked in over $8 billion in sales in the first hour of its made-up marketing holiday, "Singles Day." Singles Day has its roots in an obscure Chinese holiday for students who had not married yet. Alibaba CEO Jack Ma capitalized expertly on the holiday, and now, Singles Day dwarfs traditional American shopping holidays like Black Friday, and is much larger than Amazon's "Prime Day." Alibaba turned Singles Day, the Chinese holiday for the single-set, into a huge economic opportunity through a savvy marketing blitz. The company raked in well over $8 billion during the first hour of this year's sale, largely through its online shopping platforms, Taobao.com and Tmall.com as well as a glitzy gala. Students at Nanjing University first celebrated Singles Day in 1993 as an appreciation of, you guessed it — being single. They picked November 11 (11/11) as an ode to the loneliness of the number one. But Single’s Day was never meant to be a somber aff...