Apple Admits Student Interns Worked Illegal Hours on iPhone X
Apple has confirmed a Financial Times report that said high school student interns had worked illegal hours on the assembly line for the recently introduced iPhone X. The company and its manufacturer, Foxconn, however, denied claims the students were forced to carry out the work as a condition of graduation from school.
In the report, six students, aged 17 to 19, claim they were regularly working 11-hour days at the iPhone X factory in Zhengzhou, China. In total, 3,000 students from Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School were apparently sent to the Foxconn factory in September and told that a three-month internship was required to graduate.
As one student explains: “We are being forced by our school to work here. The work has nothing to do with our studies.”
Both Apple and Foxconn have confirmed the students worked illegal hours and are looking at the situation. Foxconn said, “all work was voluntary and compensated appropriately, [but] the interns did work overtime in violation of our policy.”
We’ll continue to follow this story.