In a recent interview with AppleInsider, a representative of Hong Kong-based nonprofit Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) claimed that Foxconn hid underage workers from the Fair Labor Association prior to audits in their factory.
The report claims that 16 and 17-year old workers were denied overtime, or even sent to other departments, and that Foxconn was “prepared” for the FLA’s labor inspection”
[SACOM project officer Debby Sze Wan] Chan said she had heard from two Foxconn workers in Zhenghou last week that the manufacturer was “prepared for the inspection” by the Fair Labor Association that had been commissioned by Apple and began last week.
“All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments,” Chan reported the workers as having said.
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Another Foxconn worker in Chengdu said she had been allowed three breaks a day recently because of the audit, whereas she is accustomed to only receiving one break a day.
In addition, the report also claims that Foxconn may have allowed additional breaks and relaxed some of their strict worker policies in advance of the audits in order to avoid them being mentioned in the official report.
Student labor was another issue that arose in the report, with Chan claiming that local Chinese governments occasionally force students to undergo “internships” at Foxconn whether or not the work is related to their field of study.
The FLA plans to conduct additional interviews with employees, starting with those who rank at the bottom of the organization, in future labor audits.