Apple Suspends Supplier For Using Illegal Student Labor In China (arstechnica.com) 35
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple has reprimanded one of its largest manufacturers after a Financial Times investigation found that thousands of student interns had worked overtime to assemble iPhones, in breach of Chinese law. After being contacted by the FT, Apple said it had stopped giving "new business" to Pegatron, its second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn. However, workers there said the factory was still manufacturing new products ahead of the holidays.
Pegatron, which has headquarters in Taiwan but has operations in China, is one of Apple's largest manufacturers, producing iPhones, Macs, iPads and other components for several years. It has also faced recurring allegations about working conditions from campaign groups such as China Labor Watch. Until last month, thousands of student interns had assembled iPhones at Pegatron's Kunshan plant and illegally worked overtime and night shifts, according to former interns and workers at the plant. Chinese government regulations prevent students from interning in factories if the work is unrelated to their studies. The alleged coercive use of students during the factory's peak production periods mirrors the abuses previously found by the FT at Foxconn. Schools and local governments often collaborate to ensure labor supply for big companies in China. The latest disclosures follow the death last month of a worker in his mid-thirties after falling unconscious in a Pegatron dormitory. Apple said: "We have a rigorous review and approval process for any student worker program, which ensures the intern's work is related to their major and prohibits overtime or night shifts. Pegatron misclassified the student workers in their program and falsified paperwork to disguise violations."
Pegatron said: "During [a] recent monitoring program conducted by our customer, some student workers at Pegatron Shanghai and Kunshan campus were identified working night shifts, overtime and in positions unrelated to their majors, which were not in compliance with local rules and regulations."
Pegatron, which has headquarters in Taiwan but has operations in China, is one of Apple's largest manufacturers, producing iPhones, Macs, iPads and other components for several years. It has also faced recurring allegations about working conditions from campaign groups such as China Labor Watch. Until last month, thousands of student interns had assembled iPhones at Pegatron's Kunshan plant and illegally worked overtime and night shifts, according to former interns and workers at the plant. Chinese government regulations prevent students from interning in factories if the work is unrelated to their studies. The alleged coercive use of students during the factory's peak production periods mirrors the abuses previously found by the FT at Foxconn. Schools and local governments often collaborate to ensure labor supply for big companies in China. The latest disclosures follow the death last month of a worker in his mid-thirties after falling unconscious in a Pegatron dormitory. Apple said: "We have a rigorous review and approval process for any student worker program, which ensures the intern's work is related to their major and prohibits overtime or night shifts. Pegatron misclassified the student workers in their program and falsified paperwork to disguise violations."
Pegatron said: "During [a] recent monitoring program conducted by our customer, some student workers at Pegatron Shanghai and Kunshan campus were identified working night shifts, overtime and in positions unrelated to their majors, which were not in compliance with local rules and regulations."
PR move for Apple (Score:1)
So, let's slap your hand, but look the other way while you keep building stuff we sell for a profit?
Well, color me purple and run me out of town on a rail, nobody would believe this could happen. I mean, they already are slumming in China for the cheapest labor they can find, so why are you upset about this?
Oh but the holiday rush (Score:2)
so that will last about 24 hours.
interns for what? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
All students in China do a "labor" internship. They have a choice of working in a factory, working on a farm, or doing a short stint of basic military training. The purpose is to build solidarity with the proletariat.
My spouse is Chinese. She spent her internship building cars in a factory in Tianjin for six months.
This is not child labor and is not "cheap" labor. The interns are paid the same and have the same working conditions as regular employees.
But to prevent abuse, the interns are not allowed to w
Re: interns for what? (Score:1)
This is not child labor and is not "cheap" labor. The interns are paid the same and have the same working conditions as regular employees.
So you're saying that your wife never faced the suicide nets; rest assured we're happy for her, Bill.
Re: (Score:2)
So you're saying that your wife never faced the suicide nets; rest assured we're happy for her, Bill.
She did her internship back in the 1990s, way before the suicide nets.
But I appreciate your concern.
Funny how they keep getting caught (Score:5, Insightful)
We have a rigorous review and approval process
No, you don't. You just have a review process that believes whatever the supplier tells you. That's not what "rigorous" means at all. The fact that this keeps happening tells me that you're also lying about your vetting process.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
We have a rigorous review and approval process
No, you don't. You just have a review process that believes whatever the supplier tells you. That's not what "rigorous" means at all. The fact that this keeps happening tells me that you're also lying about your vetting process.
So, just as rigorous as the H1B program in the US? Seems like China was catching up to US standards!
Re: (Score:2)
So? They have something practically no other company has.
If Apple finds people doing it for them, when it's against the rules for working on Apple products, you can bet it's definitely happening on everything else you buy. It's just that Apple has standards.
Now you have to buy 10 Sam
Re: (Score:2)
This makes the news because of Apple (Score:2, Redundant)
We all know this, but I'll be damned if I know what to do about it.
Re: This makes the news because of Apple (Score:2)
It would seem that the answer is to buy Apple, who is the only company who seems to penalize their suppliers for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:You get what you pay for. (Score:4, Informative)
If you pay rates that require labour abuse, then you'll get labour abuse.
The pay is above the median wage in China.
What happened was a rule violation, but it is silly to call it "abuse" since if it happened in America, it would be completely legal.
America has no rule against overtime for interns. China does.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think China does either. Apple has rules on it though because they found many suppliers doing it they decided that companies making Apple products wouldn't do it (and Apple pays more for labor as a result).
Weird (Score:2)
If I remember correctly, and I DO remember correctly, I was doing late night work when I was a student, too. Right smack in the middle of Camden. I don't remember GlaxoWellcome firing the company I was working for, doing their website at 1am...
P.S. If it wasn't for the late night work I wouldn't have been able to pay my tuition fees
P.P.S. if it wasn't for late night work I wouldn't have been so employable when I left uni because of all the late night work on my CV
Re:Weird (Score:4, Insightful)
In America, student interns have no special legal status. So is legal for them to work overtime according to the same rules that apply to other employees.
Chinese labor law is different. Internships are mandatory for all college students. Since it is involuntary, they have special legal protections, including a ban on overtime and late-night shifts.
Re: (Score:3)
You wants the short but (Score:1)
Shame on Apple (Score:2)
Apple, you’ve dented the universe!
A US based investigative news source can do better than your elaborate process to protect children. Apple have smeared their flagship against the stench of child labor law. Law broken to enable its monopoly driven machinery.
Do we really need such force in our universe?
The cycle will just begin again (Score:3)
This new supplier will violate every rule available until they get caught
Repeat the cycle until we get China out of the supply chain of western products
Removing China from our supply chain means removing products with Chinese content/ This will cause prices to go up, a little, and profits to go down (perish the thought,) a little.. It will also push work towards regimes that are good players on the international game board and remove funding for the Chinese political and military machines.
This will require voluntary, but stringent , certification and labeling of products as "China Free". It will also require western consumers to vote with their pocketbooks.
Re: (Score:2)
We can't legally place tariffs based on country of origin, but we CAN legally place them based on how people who make them are treated. Place tariffs based on employee compensation and conditions you'll solve the problem of Chinese goods being cheaper because they use both literal and effective slave labor. In order for the system to work you need to be able to check up on conditions, and absent such inspections the worst should be assumed and tariffs applied at the maximum rate. That doesn't actually force
China is not the problem. (Score:3)
My Samsung Galaxy S10 wasn't made in a Chinese sweatshop - it was made, along with about 50% of Sammy's total handsets, in...VIETNAMESE sweatshops! And the balance of Sammy's stuff is made in mostly Indian sweatshops, with a handful of third-party assemblers in various other Southeast Asian sweatshops, for tax reasons. As of a couple months ago, they manufacture precisely zero phones in China.
And they're far from the only ones - Sony, LG, and Moto are all also shifting away from China. Great! But of course
I'd be impressed if (Score:2)
Who cares if they stopped working with a company that broke Chinese laws? How about stopping work with companies whose practices violate American laws, human rights, or basic morality? That would demonstrate that they actually care about labor practices, whereas this just comes across as spinning something they would have to do regardless as virtuous.
How about not
Relax! (Score:2)
Have a latte made by a student in overtime right here in your local Starbucks.