“At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple,” Malcolm Moore reports for The Telegraph.

MacDailyNews Note: The minimum age for employment is 16, according to Apple’s report (.pdf).

Moore continues, “The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China. Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.”

“Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage,” Moore reports. “‘In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment,’ Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.”

Moore reports, “Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly. ‘When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work,’ Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory… In 2008, Apple found that a total of 25 child workers had been employed to build iPods, iPhones and its range of computers.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Although Apple seems to do much more than many other companies, they should continue their efforts to make sure that the people who are assembling Apple products in China and all other countries are of legal age and treated better than the accepted base standards. It’s good business, it’s the right thing to do, and it’s what we expect of Apple.

MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report (.pdf) can be read in full here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers "Fred Mertz" and "Lava_Head_UK" for the heads up.]