China's Apple Watch Supplier Under Fire Over Student Labour - Forced Overtime
China's Apple Watch Supplier Under Fire Over Student
Labour
Manufacturing internships are permitted under Chinese
labour law in some cases, but SACOM found the work has "literally nothing
to do with learning" and violated some of the country's labour law
provisions permitting intern work in factories.
Agence France-Presse October 30, 2018 09:43 IST
The US titan has sold tens of millions of Apple Watches
-- which can cost up to $1,499.
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: Apple is investigating a
factory in southwest China after a labour rights group said the tech giant's
supplier forced student workers to work "like robots" to assemble its
popular Apple Watch.
Many were compelled to work in order to get their
vocational degrees and had to do night shifts, according to an investigation by
Hong Kong-based NGO Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour
(SACOM).
SACOM interviewed 28 students at the plant in Chongqing
municipality over the summer, and all of them said they had not voluntarily
applied to work there, according to the report published last week.
They worked under the guise of "internships",
SACOM said, a practice rights groups say is widespread in China as
manufacturers pair up with vocational schools to supply workers and fill labour
shortages when they ramp up production for new models or the Christmas rush.
"Our graduation certificate will be withheld by the
school if we refuse to come," said one student majoring in e-commerce,
according to SACOM.
The US titan has sold tens of millions of Apple Watches
-- which can cost up to $1,499 -- since it was launched three years ago and
chief executive Tim Cook said it was the most popular watch in the world.
Manufacturing internships are permitted under Chinese
labour law in some cases, but SACOM found the work has "literally nothing
to do with learning" and violated some of the country's labour law
provisions permitting intern work in factories.
"We are like robots on the production lines,"
one 18-year-old student told SACOM. "We repeat the same procedure for
hundreds and thousands of times every day, like a robot."
Others said they were put on the night shift working from
8 pm to 8 am with minimal breaks, according to SACOM.
The Chongqing factory is operated by Quanta Computer, a
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, and also produces for other brands. Quanta
did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
But Apple spokeswoman Wei Gu said: "We are urgently
investigating the report that student interns added in September are working
overtime and night shifts."
Wei noted Quanta Chongqing was a new Apple supplier and
had been audited three times between March and June without finding student
interns.
Student workers told SACOM student labour was widespread
at the factory.
Assembly lines that repieced together Apple Watches that
had failed a quality check were almost entirely made up of student workers, one
intern told SACOM.
"The factory would not be able to operate without
student workers," a student told SACOM.
The NGO demanded Apple investigate and bring the labour
practices in line with the firm's own policies and those of the local and
central Chinese government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited
by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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