Apple iPhone X units assembled with illegal teen labour in China

Apple iPhone X units from China have been assembled by high school students. It has been learnt that electronics contract manufacturing company Foxconn employs teen labour on illegal working hours to meet the demand for the device.

As Financial Times reports, Foxconn has about 3,000 student interns ages 17 to 19 working 11 hours a day at its factories to assemble the iPhone X. The students were reportedly required to work in the factories for at least three months to complete a graduation prerequisite. The 11-hour “work experience” is a violation of the Chinese labour laws for student interns.

One student, who said the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School “forced” them to work in the plants, told the publication that she had assembled 1,200 iPhone X cameras a day. “This work has nothing to do with our studies.”

Apple and Foxconn said they had discovered instances of students working overtime at their facilities. The students were said to be working voluntarily and have been compensated and provided benefits. Nevertheless, they acknowledged that the students shouldn’t have been working overtime, and therefore they took “prompt action.” They have hired specialists to work with the management to ensure that their workforce adheres to standards.

Li Qiang, founder of New York-based China Labor Watch, said that Apple knew about its contractor’s working conditions weeks ago but had not resolved the issue yet. The tech giant could have apparently stopped the students’ rigorous working schedule sooner but they did not do that.

“Ultimately, it’s about production needs. From Apple’s actions, it seems like they don’t care about the labour standards they set previously,” Li told Bloomberg. China Labor Watch monitors the working conditions in Apple’s supply chain.

The number of workers at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory increases from 100,000 to 3000,000 every time there is a new phone that Apple would release. The production of the iPhone X faced delays this year, which meant the Taiwan-based company saw its net profits drop 30 percent.