“Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics, said it found interns as young as 14 had worked at a facility in Yantai, northeastern China, confirming a report by an advocacy group,” Tim Culpan reports for Bloomberg.
“A company investigation found the interns, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked at the campus for about three weeks, Foxconn said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News today,” Culpan reports. “A ‘small number’ of interns who were sent by schools and employed at Yantai over the summer were aged 14 to 16, according to a statement yesterday from China Labor Watch.”
Culpan reports, “The schools which sent the underage interns to the Yantai campus should take primary responsibility, China Labor Watch said. Foxconn, which sent the interns back to those schools, is also culpable for not confirming their ages, the advocacy group said… Taipei-based Foxconn has hired more than 300,000 people in inland China since 2010.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
It’s just bad news after bad news from these assholes. Apple can’t be pleased about this. Again. Perfect timing with the iPad mini release news. Coincidence? And down goes the stock. Apple needs to yanki a knot in somebody’s tail over there!
I worked for local government as an intern when I was 15. It was part of a program where family members of government employes (my mom was a social worker) could get job experience working in an actual government job. I worked at the local welfare office.
I had my own job. Once a week, delivering the local paper. At 15, I have a part-time job at a local sandwich shop.
That being said, I made those choices and I’m sure it’s a different situation from these internships.
Oh I agree, it’s much different over there. However, I would argue it’s different in a way that actually makes it more acceptable. I had an internship to get experience, I was still living at home and being supported. The money I made was just a nice supplement to buy things I wanted. They need a job to help support their family.
I grew up on a farm. Everyone I knew chopped and pulled cotton at ages earlier than 14. Where was the outrage when I was sweating my round things off out in the field.
It looks like Samsung isn’t the only one…
So what, plenty of kids work in the summer in regular jobs. I did when I was a kid and it is standard for kids to have part time jobs during the year and work full time in the summer.
The key word is interns. Hopefully they only work 40 hours a week because 60 would be too much.
Nothing here said this was for Apple or Apple products. However internships and apprenticeships at 14 yrs.+ is not unheard of in the US and not particularly abhorrent during summer break. Think Mc Donald’s, volunteer programs etc.
The real concern is regular long term employment, when these kids belong in school.
As far as Foxconn is concerned. This company is easier to fix than it is to find a better company. My take, Foxconn is the best you can get in China.
Let’s examine child labor in Mexico first please… How many US companies get “slave” labor in our own back yard.
The Financial Times article on this explicitly stated that the Foxconn facility involved does not do any Apple work.
Maybe they were Samsung workers and the bus let them off at the wrong factory?
Not to make light of it, as it is a serious problem, but boy am I getting tired of only Apple being identified in such stories.
The Financial Times article on this explicitly stated that the Foxconn facility involved–Yantai–does not do any Apple work.
So What? I worked holidays and weekends at 14 (with a work permit) at Davison’s Department Store (Macys), along with paper routes. When I entered Ga Tech, I had savings to carry me through the first two years of tuition, room and board. My parents wanted me to work…to save for college and because it taught good habits and character. I agree. My daughter also worked to save toward college and we paid for her Ga Tech education without any loans.