Interns as young as 14 found at Foxconn plant
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, October 17, 2012
A labor rights group, China Labor Watch, said in a statement that primary responsibility lay with schools involved but "Foxconn is also culpable for not confirming the ages of their workers."
Conditions in factories on China's mainland are a sensitive issue for overseas brands that outsource production of shoes, consumer electronics and other goods to local contractors.
Last month, Foxconn suspended production for one day at a factory in the city of Taiyuan following a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees that injured 40 people.
Foxconn is one of China's biggest employers, with about 1.2 million employees in factories in several cities.
The company has an internship program that takes vocational students who work for three to six months in its factories, accompanied by their teachers. Foxconn faced a complaint in August that vocational students were compelled by their schools to work in its factories on the Chinese mainland.
The company said that the students were free to leave at any time.
The Fair Labor Association, which was hired by Apple to audit working conditions at Foxconn factories, said in August that improvements it recommended in March were being carried out ahead of schedule.
That included verifying the ages of student interns.
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