New Iphone manufacturers harsh conditions contribute to riot in Foxconn factory.

[Cujo]

Who was it a while back was bleating about how Apple ensured the well being of the workers in their manufaturers facilities?

Foxconn riot in China seen as likely to recur

Video: A factory in China owned by the manufacturer of Apple's iPhones resumed production Tuesday after a brawl by workers highlighted tensions that labor groups say were worsened by the pressure of a new iPhone launch.
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By William Wan,

BEIJING — The factory riot that hit one of world’s largest electronics manufacturers this week in northern China was rooted in growing economic pressure and impatience with poor work conditions among the country’s vast pool of migrant workers, analysts say, adding that if grievances remain unaddressed, such incidents are likely to increase.

The riot, which began late Sunday, involved nearly 2,000 workers at a facility of Foxconn, a Taiwan-based manufacturing giant, which temporarily shut down the factory in response. The latest unrest coincides with signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy, as well as the launch of a new iPhone by Apple, which depends on Foxconn as its main Chinese supplier.

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Foxconn: A troubled company under scrutiny: Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer known for making products for tech titans such as Apple and Dell, has come under increasing fire for its labor practices. Here’s a look at some of the events that have led to independent audits of its work environment.
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“Such riots have become in some ways inevitable,” said Liu Kaiming, a labor expert in Shenzhen, the hub of China’s manufacturing plants. “It’s no longer simply a matter of raising the wages.”

Foxconn and police said the cause of the latest riot was being investigated, the Associated Press reported. The company did not respond to labor groups’ claims about working conditions.

The young migrant workers whose labor has fueled much of the growth of China’s economy and the global manufacturing sector have begun to change in demographics and desires. That labor pool is shrinking, according to experts, as workers from China’s provinces have become better educated and hold higher expectations for their lives.

“They aren’t just thinking about saving money to bring back to their villages anymore,” said Mary Gallagher, a China labor expert at the University of Michigan.

But the heavy demands of the factory jobs have not changed with the demographics, leaving many frustrated. Most of the jobs require little education or, in many cases, skill — only intensity.

“The companies haven’t figured out how to manage that intensity,” Gallagher said. “It’s intense because of the precision required. It’s intense because of how quickly technology changes and newer models are demanded. And while the number of workers is shrinking, you have the pressures on them mounting.”

Foxconn, in particular, has drawn attention in recent years because of its connection to Apple and the increasingly visible signs of unhappiness among its workers. A string of employee suicides in 2010 pushed the company to install netting to catch jumpers and take other steps. Pressure from its clients — especially Apple, which found itself under fire — also led it to raise wages and take other minor steps.

The Washington-based Fair Labor Association, which audited Foxconn’s Apple facilities in China after the criticism by rights groups, initially found serious violations of labor standards but reported in August that the manufacturer is improving working conditions ahead of schedule.

But the improvements are not enough, many Foxconn workers say. “It’s not about the money. . . . It’s a problem of management. It’s a mess. The guards often abuse their power over the workers,” said Wang Zhiqian, who used to work on Foxconn’s production line and now recruits workers for the company. “We attract many fewer workers now than in 2010. People would rather work at a hotel or other places. It’s not a lack of workers in these areas — it’s a problem of spiritual emptiness.”

Wang and others describe workdays that routinely extend three hours into overtime, leaving little opportunity to do anything after hours but sleep. And they say there is little talk among the workers, who stew in their frustrations.

“It’s definitely not a happy place,” he said.Details slowly emerging about the riot this week seem to support those descriptions. According to witnesses and a report from the state-run China News Service — the most detailed official account of the riot — the incident was sparked by a clash between guards and workers at the factory, in the central northern city of Taiyuan.

A large number of workers had been brought from other areas of China about a month ago to work on a large electronics order. (Early claims that the work was related to Apple’s new iPhones have not been confirmed by either company.) When guards beat up workers from Shandong province, others from the same region fought back, igniting a full-fledged riot, according to the news agency’s account.

“This sort of circumstance is bound to lead to the eruption of certain issues in other factories of Foxconn sooner or later,” said Li Qiang, an activist with China Labor Watch.

In an earlier account, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that the riot was sparked by fighting between workers from Shandong province and others from Henan province.

An online account posted on China’s microblogs Wednesday morning by an alleged worker at the factory said a fight between workers from different provinces grew into a riot only after guards responded to the fight with force, severely injuring a worker from Shandong.


Liu Liu contributed to this report.

Foxconn riot in China unlikely to be the last, experts say - The Washington Post

[Cujo]

Foxconn riot: China factory, Apple iPhone 5 supplier, halts production after brawl
4:01 PM, Sep 24, 2012 | Comments




Foxconn, the company that makes Apple’s iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people. The fight, the cause of which was under investigation, erupted Sunday night at a privately managed dormitory near a Foxconn Technology Group factory in the northern city of Taiyuan, the company and Chinese police said. / AP
Written by
The Associated Press

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The company that makes Apple's iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people.

The fight, the cause of which is under investigation, erupted Sunday night at a privately managed dormitory near a Foxconn Technology Group factory in the northern city of Taiyuan, the company and Chinese police said. A police statement reported by the official Xinhua News Agency said 5,000 officers were dispatched to the scene.

The Taiwanese-owned company declined to say whether the factory is involved in iPhone production. It said the facility, which employs 79,000 people, will suspend work Monday and reopen Tuesday.

Foxconn makes iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc. and also assembles products for Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. It is one of China's biggest employers, with some 1.2 million workers in factories in Taiyuan, the southern city of Shenzhen, in Chengdu in the west and in Zhengzhou in central China.

The unrest happens at a critical time for Apple. The fight started days after the launch of the latest iPhone model in the U.S. and eight other countries. The phone quickly sold out in most stores in the U.S. and Apple has a three to four-week backlog of online orders as it ramps up production to meet demand.

On Monday, Apple said it sold 5 million units of the new iPhone 5 in the first three days, less than analysts had expected. Its stock fell 1.4 percent to $690.50 in midday trading.

The fight in Taiyuan started at 11 p.m. on Sunday, "drawing a large crowd of spectators and triggering chaos," a police spokesman was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Order was restored after about four hours and several people were arrested, said the company, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. It said 40 people were taken to hospitals for treatment.

The violence did not appear to be work-related, the company and police said. Comments posted on Chinese Internet bulletin boards said it might have erupted after a security guard hit an employee.

Photos posted on microblog service Sina Weibo showed broken windows, a burned vehicle and police with riot helmets, shields and clubs.

Phone calls to police headquarters and the Taiyuan city hall were not answered. People reached by phone at restaurants and other businesses in the area said they had no details about the clash.

In the past year, Foxconn has faced scrutiny over workers' complaints about wages and working hours. The company raised minimum pay and promised in March to limit hours after an auditor hired by Apple found Foxconn employees were regularly required to work more than 60 hours a week.

Foxconn riot: China factory, Apple iPhone 5 supplier, halts production after brawl | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com

[Cujo]

Foxconn riot: China factory, Apple iPhone 5 supplier, halts production after brawl
4:01 PM, Sep 24, 2012 | Comments




Foxconn, the company that makes Apple’s iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people. The fight, the cause of which was under investigation, erupted Sunday night at a privately managed dormitory near a Foxconn Technology Group factory in the northern city of Taiyuan, the company and Chinese police said. / AP
Written by
The Associated Press

FILED UNDER
News
ADS BY PULSE 360
AdChoices
The company that makes Apple's iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a dormitory injured 40 people.

The fight, the cause of which is under investigation, erupted Sunday night at a privately managed dormitory near a Foxconn Technology Group factory in the northern city of Taiyuan, the company and Chinese police said. A police statement reported by the official Xinhua News Agency said 5,000 officers were dispatched to the scene.

The Taiwanese-owned company declined to say whether the factory is involved in iPhone production. It said the facility, which employs 79,000 people, will suspend work Monday and reopen Tuesday.

Foxconn makes iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc. and also assembles products for Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. It is one of China's biggest employers, with some 1.2 million workers in factories in Taiyuan, the southern city of Shenzhen, in Chengdu in the west and in Zhengzhou in central China.

The unrest happens at a critical time for Apple. The fight started days after the launch of the latest iPhone model in the U.S. and eight other countries. The phone quickly sold out in most stores in the U.S. and Apple has a three to four-week backlog of online orders as it ramps up production to meet demand.

On Monday, Apple said it sold 5 million units of the new iPhone 5 in the first three days, less than analysts had expected. Its stock fell 1.4 percent to $690.50 in midday trading.

The fight in Taiyuan started at 11 p.m. on Sunday, "drawing a large crowd of spectators and triggering chaos," a police spokesman was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Order was restored after about four hours and several people were arrested, said the company, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. It said 40 people were taken to hospitals for treatment.

The violence did not appear to be work-related, the company and police said. Comments posted on Chinese Internet bulletin boards said it might have erupted after a security guard hit an employee.

Photos posted on microblog service Sina Weibo showed broken windows, a burned vehicle and police with riot helmets, shields and clubs.

Phone calls to police headquarters and the Taiyuan city hall were not answered. People reached by phone at restaurants and other businesses in the area said they had no details about the clash.

In the past year, Foxconn has faced scrutiny over workers' complaints about wages and working hours. The company raised minimum pay and promised in March to limit hours after an auditor hired by Apple found Foxconn employees were regularly required to work more than 60 hours a week.

Foxconn riot: China factory, Apple iPhone 5 supplier, halts production after brawl | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com

[Cujo]

Riots, suicides, and other issues in Foxconn's iPhone factories
What makes life hard at the giant plants that make iPhones and other staples of high-tech life? CNET's Jay Greene traveled to China to find out.

by Jay Greene September 25, 2012 12:00 AM PDT
Follow @iamjaygreene

Li Yue, a 21-year-old student, waits outside a recruiting kiosk outside a plant run by Foxconn in Zhengzhou, China. She eventually would get a job with the company, but in its Taiyuan plant, a ten-hour bus ride away.
(Credit: Photo illustration: James Martin/CNET)
ZHENGZHAO, Henan province, China -- If you want to understand why iPhones are made in this corner of the world, look no further than Li Yue.
When I met the effervescent 21-year-old, she was lined up at a kiosk outside the gates of the massive assembly plant owned by Foxconn. Li, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jean shorts and carrying a pink parasol to beat the heat on a scorcher of a June day, was among a group of a dozen or so candidates applying for a job with the Taiwanese firm. Not a specific job, mind you. Any job.
It's not as if Li, who just finished her first year as a student at Henan Police College, didn't have much going for her. She was bright and engaging. She spoke more than passing English. And she conveyed an eagerness to get started.
Foxconn granted her wish. But instead of landing a job at the plant here, which employs more than 190,000 workers, Li boarded a bus that afternoon for Taiyuan, in the Shanxi Province, a 10-hour ride away. It may have been more than she bargained for.
Late Sunday night, the Taiyuan factory, with more than 79,000 workers, was roiled by violence. Foxconn said "a personal dispute between several employees escalated into an incident involving some 2,000 workers," leading Foxconn to suspend operations at the plant for a day. While Chinese authorities are investigating the cause of the riot, Foxconn said that it "appears not to have been work-related." Apple declined to comment on the riot.

From rocks to recycling: The life of an iPhone
Tomorrow: We look at the environmental concerns raised by mining for the raw materials of the iPhone and what happens to iPhones when people get rid of them.
The weekend violence is the latest in a growing list of incidents that have heightened concerns over conditions in factories that make iPhones and other high-volume tech products. There have been employee suicides, explosions at two plants that make Apple gadgets, and reports of harsh working conditions. A New York Times investigation of the manufacturing of Apple products in China in January painted a picture of a company that wants to improve the workplace at its partners such as Foxconn but "falters when it conflicts with crucial supplier relationships or the fast delivery of new products."
There are other, less obvious issues adding to tensions in these teeming facilities. Wages may be high compared with other jobs in China, but they are sometimes barely enough to cover rent in the huge dormitories in which employees typically live, and still leave workers with money to send to family members in villages who live on even less. Managers can subject employees to harsh public ridicule that would be unthinkable in Western workplaces. And employees are often reluctant to make waves simply because there are so many other people who would happily trade places with them.
"The employees always say the people outside want a job," one employee told me in an interview, "and the people inside want to quit."

When a major new product such as the iPhone 5 is heading to stores, even more stress is put on that fast-growing manufacturing chain. Apple sold 5 million iPhones over the weekend (up from 4 million for the first weekend of sales for the iPhone 4S), and could sell 10 times that amount by the end of the quarter that closes December 31. Meeting that demand has required an epic buildup of materials, infrastructure, and labor, all while satisfying Wall Street's need for bigger, more historic profits.
Li, who is from Huaiyang, about 120 miles southeast of Zhengzhou, knew all about the suicides at Foxconn. And she had read articles online about the working conditions at the company's plants. But she still lined up for the interview, during which recruiters asked the most basic questions and look for scars and tattoos, according to Li. And she had no qualms about paying the 150 renmimbi, or $24, for a bus ticket to Taiyuan, even for a job that pays 1,550 renminbi a month, about $244. (Foxconn raised wages in Zhengzhou on August 1 to 1,800 renminbi, about $283.)
"It's very hard to get a job at Foxconn," Li said, with her pink purse and a grocery bag full of food in her hand. "They pay more than other companies."
Workers like Li are in such abundance that they've become a resource in much the same manner as aluminum or plastic. They move among cities such as Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, and others where iPhones are made as needs arise. And as soon as they leave their jobs, they're replaced by other workers, just as eager as Li to get started. That's particularly true as Foxconn opens new factories in inland cities, where opportunities are scarce.
Putting size in perspective
Scale matters when you're trying to satisfy global consumer demand. Foxconn, which makes products for Apple and plenty of other tech giants, including Dell and Hewlett-Packard, is huge, employing 1.1 million people in China. But then, China is massive, with more than 1.3 billion residents.
Consider Zhengzhou. Everywhere you look in the part of the city where Foxconn has set up shop, construction cranes loom. Excavators move dusty, dry earth, while skeletons of long factory buildings and 12-story dormitories form a changing skyline. Chinese media report Foxconn plans to employ 300,000 workers here within a few years, but it's still all Foxconn and Apple can do to keep up with demand.

Construction near Foxconn's factory in Zhengzhou, China.
(Credit: Jay Greene/CNET)
As absolutely gargantuan as Foxconn's facility is here, Zhengzhou can handle it. The city has 8.6 million residents. Henan province, of which Zhengzhou is the capital, has a population of 94 million. That's the same number of residents as California. And Texas. And New York. And Pennsylvania. Combined. If it were a country, Henan would have the 12th largest population in the world, in an area roughly the size of Wisconsin.
I came to this city because I wanted to explain how an iPhone comes to life and the consequences of meeting prodigious global demand. Beyond the exposes about conditions in the factories that make iPhones, we've also seen troubling reports of pollution caused by the mining for its raw materials and its ultimate disposal.
I contacted Apple during my reporting for this project. The company provided a statement last night.
"Apple is committed to the highest standards of social responsibility across our worldwide supply chain," the company said. "We insist that all of our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever our products are made."
True, virtually any major consumer electronics product carries similar labor and environmental issues. The life cycle of an iPhone isn't all that different than that of a Samsung or an HTC phone, and nearly every modern mobile phone is made by Asian contract firms, where worker rights aren't protected by federal and state laws as they are in the United States. Still, the iPhone is iconic. Its introduction in 2007 upended an entire industry and led the shift from desktop to mobile computing. But there's a downside, as the riot in Taiyuan reminds us.
Apple is not ignoring the issue. The company has hired a group to audit workplace conditions, the Fair Labor Association or FLA, as a result of the issues raised in recent months. Last month, the group reported that Foxconn addressed several workplace concerns, such as enforcing ergonomic breaks, changing the design of workers' equipment to guard against repetitive stress injuries, and updating maintenance policies to ensure equipment is working properly.
"In addition to this ambitious project with the FLA, we've been making steady progress in reducing excessive work hours throughout our supply chain," the company said in its statement. "We track working hours weekly for over 700,000 workers and currently have 97 percent compliance with the 60-hour maximum workweek specified in our code of conduct."
And in response to the wave of press coverage about and activist condemnation of the conditions at those plants, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook took offense at any suggestion that the company is indifferent to the workers in its supply chain.
"Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern," Cook wrote to employees in January, according to an internal e-mail obtained by 9to5mac. "Any suggestion that we don't care is patently false and offensive to us."

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook at the iPhone 5 launch.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Both Foxconn and Pegatron, another contract manufacturer that assembles iPhones in China, declined my request to visit their facilities. But Foxconn, in a statement to CNET made prior to the riot that occurred over the weekend, acknowledged problems and said it is working to improve conditions.
"Foxconn is not perfect, but we have made tremendous progress," the company said, pointing to the hiring of mental health professionals and an expansion of extracurricular activities for employees. "It is also clear that our efforts to enhance employee welfare and support are meeting with success and they are saving lives and they are serving as a model for other companies with large employee populations who face similar challenges."
Critics dispute that Foxconn has done much of anything to improve working conditions. A report released the day before the iPhone 5 debuted, from Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior or SACOM, a Hong Kong watchdog group, painted an entirely different picture. SACOM interviewed 60 workers in Zhengzhou, detailing continuing problems at the Foxconn plant.
Meet the Chinese activist trying to improve conditions for Foxconn employees.
"When the peak season comes, they are tied to the production lines with just one day off in 13 working days, or no rest day at all in a month, all to cope with the public demand for the new Apple products," the report says. "It is sad to say that to some extent, workers also yearn for the peak season because their base pay is insufficient to meet their basic needs, especially for those who have to support their dependents."
SACOM found that employees worked excessive overtime, beyond Chinese legal limits. The report said that some workers weren't compensated for their overtime. It cited "inadequate training and protection" for employees using chemicals in the production process. And the group even found that some workers need to acquire an "off-duty permit" for a toilet break.
Exploring Zhengzhou
To find my own answers, I poked around Foxconn's Zhengzhou operation. There, I hired a three-wheeled, engine-powered cart, something that might be called a "tuk-tuk" in other parts of Asia, though here it seemed to be known as motorized tricycle. The driver suggested we simply walk through the Foxconn gates, past the security guards. No one stopped us.
I didn't try to walk into buildings, where I'm certain I would have been stopped. But the grounds themselves are clean, if a bit dusty. Orange trash bins with Foxconn's logo dot the campus. From the outside, the buildings are modern, if a bit ordinary. Rows of motorcycles are lined up outside in what must be employee parking, and the sidewalks on this side of the gates are almost entirely empty as workers assemble gadgets inside.
There's plenty more action on the other side of the factory. That's where most of the dormitories are. From the outside, the dorms look like apartment buildings you'd find in an American city. They are nondescript brick structures, often 12 stories high, row after row of them. Laundry occasionally hangs from balconies. Guards prevent visitors from entering.
There, it's a lively street scene outside, as residents socialize, while occasionally picking up a snack or shoes from the kiosks that line the roads. It's a bit dingy. Litter is strewn on the streets and plastic bags tumble with the breeze.

The streets near Foxconn's Zhengzhou dormitories are lined with vendors, selling food and clothes. Other than the vendors, most of the people walking these streets work at the Foxconn factory.
(Credit: Jay Greene/CNET)
A 26-year-old woman sits down with me at a food court on the ground floor of one of the dormitories. She only gives her family name, Ma, for fear of retribution from her employer, Foxconn, for talking with a journalist without permission. It's a concern of nearly every Foxconn employee with whom I chat. Her glasses frame a round, cherubic face. She's wearing a light shirt with a floral pattern, having changed from the Foxconn polo shirt workers wear on the job.
Ma works in the service department, logging the defects of iPhones pulled from the assembly line into a computer. She's been on the job three months, moving from Shangqiu, a city of 7.4 million that's 140 miles east of here. Like plenty of Foxconn employees, she took the job because the money was better than any work she could find at home.
But the job comes at a price. She left her 1-year-old daughter back in Shangqiu with her mother and hasn't seen her since she left home.
"I miss her very much," Ma said.
Related stories
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iPhone 5 sales top 5M units over first weekend, Apple says
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iPhone 5 full review: Finally, the iPhone we've always wanted
As for her husband, he's working somewhere in southern China, though she's not really sure where. The two of them haven't talked since she left home.
The work itself, Ma said, isn't really all that bad. Mundane, yes. But not overwhelming. She puts in eight-hour days, five days a week, and tries to get as much overtime as possible. That's because the pay barely covers her needs.
She earns the 1,550 renminbi, or $244, a month that was common for Foxconn entry-level workers here before the August 1 raise. But after she pays rent for a bunk bed in a dormitory room that she shares with seven other Foxconn workers and purchasing food that she often buys at Foxconn's canteen, there's generally no money left to send back to her home. And she's terribly worried about rumors that property management company that runs the dorms in which she and 85 percent of the Zhengzhou workforce live is going to increase its rent.
For her, the answer is overtime. Ma tries to add as much overtime as she can to supplement her salary. After media reports surfaced about Foxconn allowing overtime in excess of Chinese law, which limits overtime to 36 hours a month, her boss has limited her opportunities to work longer shifts.

Riots, suicides, and other issues in Foxconn's iPhone factories | Apple - CNET News
Job hunting at Foxconn - The making of an iPhone (pictures) - CNET News

[ltnt]

Well, Koojo, I read nothing there that impresses me as to why perfectly good labor should riot. Clean working conditions, free lodging, swimming pools, social networks, free lunches and perfectly white uniforms.

I'd have to say it beats the shitola out of Maggies Farm.

"Truth is:" I didn't read any of the cut and paste. Hows that for interest level?

[Cujo]

Well, Koojo, I read nothing there that impresses me as to why perfectly good labor should riot. Clean working conditions, free lodging, swimming pools, social networks, free lunches and perfectly white uniforms.

I'd have to say it beats the shitola out of Maggies Farm.

"Truth is:" I didn't read any of the cut and paste. Hows that for interest level?

Read this then.

Riots, suicides, and other issues in Foxconn's iPhone factories | Apple - CNET News

[DrAndy]

so, it is the usual abuse of power by the guards and other managers

what is new?

[Butterfly]

they should burn the place and the world would be a better place without the freaking iPhone

[slackula]

Bitching about iPhone with regard to Foxconn is retarded FUD.

If you own something electronic then the chances are that a least part of it came out of a Foxconn plant. Kindle, XBox, Playstation anybody?

Foxconn major customers:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Microsoft
Motorola Mobility
Nintendo
Nokia
Sony
Toshiba
Vizio

Foxconn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ltnt]

You're right I own a Dell laptop. As you were saying? Poor slave labor, I wonder just what they were thinking when they took those jobs?

Not a party member, then get in line. US manufacturers opting for foreign cheap labor isn't the cause of these riots, but the internal abuse by a wholly owned and operated Chinese Company and its government and its overall abuse of its citizens.

I would personally like it if USA companies had to pay fines to the USA government for moving off-shore. Perhaps on the order of Frances newly imposed 75% tax on the rich and prosperous.

This will certainly make for fewer local businesses expanding in France or remaining a citizen of France. Austerity by exclusion.

[Mid]

iPhone manufacturer says underage interns found
Oct 16, 2012

BEIJING (AP) — The company that manufactures Apple’s iPhone said Tuesday it found underage interns as young as 14 working at one of its factories in China.


Foxconn, China
Pic: AP

Foxconn Technology Group said the interns were found by a company investigation at its factory in the eastern city of Yantai and were sent back to their schools. China’s minimum legal working age is 16.

Foxconn, owned by Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., said it was investigating with schools how the interns were sent to its factory. It didn’t say how many underage interns it found.

“We recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action,” Foxconn said in a statement. “Any Foxconn employee found, through our investigation, to be responsible for these violations will have their employment immediately terminated.”

Foxconn produces iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc. and also assembles products for Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. The company gave no indication what products were made in facilities where the interns worked.

A labor rights group, China Labor Watch, said in a statement that primary responsibility lay with schools involved but “Foxconn is also culpable for not confirming the ages of their workers.”

Conditions in factories in China are a sensitive issue for foreign brands that outsource production of shoes, consumer electronics and other goods to local contractors. Last month, Foxconn suspended production for one day at a factory in the city of Taiyuan following a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees that injured 40 people.

Foxconn is one of China’s biggest employers, with about 1.2 million employees in factories in several cities.

The company has an internship program that takes vocational students who work for three to six months in its factories, accompanied by teachers.

Foxconn faced a complaint in August that vocational students were compelled by their schools to work in its factories in China. Foxconn said the students were free to leave at any time.

The Fair Labor Association, which was hired by Apple to audit working conditions at Foxconn factories, said in August that improvements it recommended in March were being carried out ahead of schedule. That included verifying the ages of student interns.

asiancorrespondent.com