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Foxconn admits to violating Chinese law by hiring underage interns

Foxconn admits to violating Chinese law by hiring underage interns

By Ben Kersey

Source Associated Press, ZDNet, and China Labor Watch

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Foxconn
Foxconn

Foxconn has confirmed this morning that several underage interns worked at one of its factories in China. The component manufacturer says that interns as young as 14 worked at its Yantai factory — a plant that builds consumer electronics for Sony, among other companies — for around three weeks despite China’s minimum working age of 16. In a statement, Foxconn admits "that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company," going on to say that "any Foxconn employee found, through our investigation, to be responsible for these violations will have their employment immediately terminated."

"We recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company."

China Labor Watch suggests that while the schools responsible for the students are primarily to blame, "Foxconn is also culpable for not confirming the ages of their workers." The discovery follows on from a report the watchdog published on Monday, indicating that Foxconn hired "a small number" of students over the summer. The report also confirmed that the electronics manufacturer has begun to send the students in question back to their schools.

The latest revelation comes after recent reports that Chinese students were pulled from schools in order to work on the iPhone 5 as part of a "forced" internship program. Foxconn later denied that students were being pressured into the program, saying that schools worked with the local government in order to select students under teacher supervision. Still, there’s a growing unrest among workers in Foxconn factories over general conditions as well as the brutality of the security guards.

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