Yahoo Finance Foxconn Admits Student Intern Labour Breach
An Asian company that assembles products for Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) and Sony (Xetra: 853687 - news) has admitted breaching labour laws with its interns.
Taiwanese firm Foxconn revealed that students worked night shifts and overtime in violation of company policy in its Chinese facility.
"In the case of recent allegations regarding the internship programme at our Yantai campus, we have conducted an internal investigation," the company said.
"(We) have determined that there have been a few instances where our policies pertaining to overtime and night shift work were not enforced."
The statement came after Chinese media reported that an information engineering university in the city of Xian allegedly forced students to join the Foxconn internship programme in Shandong province in order to graduate.
The Oriental Morning Post quoted some students as saying they were assigned to assembly lines to make Sony PlayStation games consoles instead of doing any work relating to their course and were sometimes forced to work 11 hours a day.
When some students wanted to drop out, they were told they would lose their internship credits and would be unable to get their diplomas, the report said.
Foxconn said it had taken immediate action "to bring that campus into full compliance with our code and policies".
The company said it would reinforce its policy of no overtime and no night shifts for student interns, and would remind interns of their right to end their participation in the programme at any time.
Foxconn, the trade name for Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Company (LSE: HHPD.L - news) , is the world's largest contract electronics maker.
It assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia (Stockholm: NOKI-SEK.ST - news) , among others, in huge plants in China where it employs more than one million workers.
The company has come under the spotlight in recent years after a number of suicides and unrest among workers at its Chinese plants.
In 2010, at least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of staff.
Although Foxconn denied the accusations, it raised wages by nearly 70% at its Chinese plants in 2010.
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