Apple and Foxconn back under fire for working conditions

Apple and Foxconn have yet to make significant changes to labour practices after Chinese employees complained of unpaid overtime, bullying and unsafe conditions - that's according to not-for-profit group Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM). SACOM levelled the accusations in its Sweatshops are good for …

[Vin King]

What about iPhone 5?

This is disappointing. With all these so-called quality of life improvements, how can we keep the death rate at the factory high enough to put the soul of a chinese man into each phone to do all the math for the processor?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interview any employee anywhere in the world

Are you happy with your pay- No

Are you happy with your conditions- No

Are you happy with the management- No

What could be done to improve your conditions- more pay, more holiday, less hours, more perks......

[Anonymous Coward]

Had it where I work recently. Only 30% were happy with their pay.

[Anonymous Coward]

and 70% were greedy bastar*s

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What about iPhone 5?

"What about iPhone 5?" - Who cares?

"This is disappointing. With all these so-called quality of life improvements, how can we keep the death rate at the factory high enough to put the soul of a chinese man into each phone to do all the math for the processor?"

Not even witty!

[LinkOfHyrule]

Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM)

SACOM sounds a bit like sack 'em if you're sloppy with the pronunciation! I they should re-brand, which brings me to my second point...

Oh my god, an article about Foxconn and Apple on the Register without the word "re-brander" in it - whatever next!

[Chimp]

Sample size...

Over 170 workers were interviewed... Over 3 months. Apparently no dissenting views to the study's conclusions.

I think this is a good study...

[Jeebus]

The Rebrander in nothing changes due to profits *shock*, typical Apple, I'm surprised people think anything will change, ever with the company, the only change is the guy who didn't wash is dead.

[Tim Worstal]

"The Foxconn workers in Brazil who produce iPhones have much better working conditions because of that."

Well, actually, it could be because Brazil is twice as rich as China (GDP per capita over $12,000 as opposed to China's $6,000).

You know, workers in richer countries get paid more and have better working conditions than people in poor countries? This, just possibly you understand, why we call them richer countries?

Maybe SCAOM is just made up of the students who failed first year economics classes?

[Kristian Walsh]

"unpaid and excessive overtime"

...reminds me of my last year working for Apple.

But then, I was paid a good salary, in a clean environment (well, clean-ish... well, okay, by most standards, the offices were a total shitbox, but still nothing compared to a Chinese sweatshop), with some flexibility in working hours.

Unpaid overtime is par for the course in office jobs. But that said, I do believe it's unacceptable in manufacturing, where workers don't have access to "recovery" time during those long shifts. (What I mean is that when you're at your desk and beginning to feel fatigue, you can take a break; on a line, you've got to push through, at the same rate of work, until the next rest period)

[ukgnome]

Perspective people please

Whilst we might not have sweatshops in the UK we do have a similar work trend.

The national minimum wage is a joke. The people that make your ready meals are given a piss poor job in sometimes unpleasant conditions. I don't see any of you thinking that this is wrong, you all still love your microwave in a box fodder. They don't have perks and are often docked wages for silly things.

Now I am not saying that the work model used in a communist county is ethical, but please try to remember that a capitalist society has no say in how they run there employment. But if you do want your say then stop buying from them!

[Anonymous Coward]

Vote with your wallet

Nothing changes unless people refuse to buy products made in Chinense sweatshops. Consumers have ALL of the power - if they chose to use it.

[wowfood]

overpriced underpaid

When you consider how overpriced the apple hardware is when they're basically screwing over most of the people who make it imagine how much it'll cost when / if wages go up and more people are hired.

I mean, 80h of overtime cut down to 36 with increased wages to make up the difference, but they'll need to hire more people to make up for those lost 44h of overtime. That could be a fairly chunky increase in expenditure. (random figure of 20%) and as we all know, that increase in expenditure always gets passed on to the consumer.

[ItsNotMe]

"Apple could not immediately be reached for comment."

Like they would anyway.

[Gannon (J.) Dick]

Re: "Apple could not immediately be reached for comment."

Hollywood really needs to bring back "Name That Tune". I was a genius at it ... I can name this tune in one finger.

[Anonymous Coward]

Foxconn Major customers

Foxconn Major customers: Acer Inc. (Taiwan), Amazon.com (United States), Apple Inc. (United States), Cisco (United States), Dell (United States), Hewlett-Packard (United States), Intel (United States), Microsoft (United States), Motorola Mobility (United States)], Nintendo (Japan), Nokia (Finland), Samsung Electronics (South Korea), Sony (Japan), Toshiba (Japan), Vizio (United States) ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn#Major_customers