Report: Foxconn using illegal student labor to build the iPhone X

Thousands of teenagers in China are being forced by their school to work as “interns” inside a factory run by top Apple supplier Foxconn, to build the iPhone X, the Financial Times reports, citing six students from the program.

The students said authorities at the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School told them they had to complete a three-month internship at the factory to graduate. Several students told the newspaper they routinely worked 11-hour shifts, in violation of Chinese student labor laws.

“We are being forced by our school to work here,” said one 18-year-old student, who declined to use her first name for fear of retaliation. She’s studying to become a train attendant, and said she assembled up to 1,200 iPhone X cameras per day. “The work has nothing to do with our studies.”

Apple and Foxconn told the Financial Times the students were working there voluntarily and were being paid fairly. Apple reportedly said an audit found some of the students were working longer shifts than they should, and that Foxconn would take remedial action.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2017/11/21/aapl-iphone-x-foxconn-student-labor-report.html?ana=e_tf&s=newsletter&ed=2017-11-21&u=ColXVN5SPzQtLHFP87ho2w07857290&t=1511313415&j=79213541