Apple’s supply chain integrity under fire

Global giant Apple has admitted using illegal student labour to build its new iPhone X through its Chinese contractor Foxconn.

According to the Financial Times newspaper, a group of 3,000 students from Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School regularly worked 11-hour shifts as part of a three-month ‘work experience’ placement, which was required for them to graduate. Although student labour is legal in China, workers must be paid, placements must be voluntary, and they are subject to the same rules as other workers on overtime. The students’ long shifts were contrary to Chinese law.

‘During the course of a recent audit, we discovered instances of student interns working overtime at a supplier facility in China,’ Apple said.  ‘We’ve confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime.’

Concerns over conditions in the Chinese factories of Apple’s major suppliers were raised in a 2012 report following a cluster of suicides at Foxconn, believed to be linked to low pay and long working hours. China Labour Watch has been monitoring conditions in Foxconn, Pegatron, Compel, and Green Point since 2011. Ina report reviewing conditions at the four suppliers in 2017, China Labour Watch highlighted the exploitation of workers under pressure to boost production through longer working hours and less pay than in 2016.

‘Compared with the working conditions in 2016 workers in Apple’s supply chain received less compensation yet more overtime,’ the report said. ‘These violations of worker’s rights raise questions as to the capability of Apple to uphold the promise of corporate social responsibility [within the supply chain]’.