Foxconn, the company that manufactures many of the parts for Apple"s iPhones, has stopped the illegal overtime that was being worked by young interns at the iPhone X factories in Henan province, China.
Approximately 3000 students work at the Zhengzhou plant, and according to Apple these secondary school students do so voluntarily, but a report from the Financial Times found that at least six of these interns had worked 11-hour days. Under Chinese law, children are prevented from working over forty hours a week.
Both Apple and Foxconn have announced that the students have been compensated, provided with benefits and that the overtime practice has been stopped. According to Foxconn, the students are only a small portion of the workforce it uses and these students had been hired in September in order to try and meet the massive production demands for the iPhone X that had mushroomed from a large number of orders globally for the iPhone X.
In a statement posted by the BBC, the company has claimed:
"Apple is dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
However, there have been numerous reports of workers being abused and mistreated in the process of making their goods over the years. Such frequency and consistency of abuse from Foxconn makes it seem like the Taiwanese firm does not place much emphasis on worker"s welfare, which in turn makes Apple"s statements on the matter seem insincere.
Source: BBC