Apple investigates forced student labor at Chinese factory

Apple has launched an investigation amid allegations that one of its suppliers was illegally employing students to make Apple Watches at a factory in Chongqing.

Hong Kong based labor rights group Sacom issued a report last week claiming an Apple supplier has been illegally using students on the Apple Watch production line at its factory in Chongqing.

A customer uses an Apple Series 4 smartwatch at a sales launch at a store in Chicago, Illinois, September 21, 2018. [Photo: VCG]

"We are like robots"

Sacom says it interviewed 28 high school students. The students said they were sent by their schools to the plant for "internships," yet did the same jobs of a production line worker, mostly irrelevant to their majors and often with illegal overtime and night shifts.

"We are like robots on the production lines. We repeat the same procedure hundreds or thousands of times every day, like a robot," said an 18-year-old student who works at the Apple Watch assembly line.

Many students said they were warned by their schools or teachers that if they refused to do the "internship" they would have problems receiving their graduation certificates.

The Sacom report suggests that at least half of production line workers in the plant are students, with many of them aged 16 to 18.

"Basically, this department is composed of student workers from my school, as well as a few senior staff. At least three production lines in this department are operated by students from my school. There are around 120 students in the three lines and more in others," said the student.

General view of the Apple Watch during the Apple Covent Garden re-opening and iPhone XR launch at Apple store, Covent Garden on October 26, 2018 in London, England. [Photo: VCG]

"We are investigating"

Apple issued a statement on Monday, saying it has launched an investigation into these allegations from the Sacom report, according to CNN.

"We are urgently investigating the report that student interns added in September are working overtime and night shifts," Apple said. "We have zero tolerance for failure to comply with our standards and we ensure swift action and appropriate remediation if we discover code violations."

According to Apple's Supplier Responsibility Standards, suppliers should ensure that all work performed by student workers is voluntary and relevant to their field of study.

"Not its first time"

The allegations echo another student labor scandal involving Apple last year in its Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, where both Apple and Foxconn admitted student interns illegally worked overtime to assemble the iPhone X. The two companies vowed at that time to end the practice.

Sacom says it has been monitoring Apple's alleged practice of using student interns to replace regular workers in China since 2012.

The Chinese government has been cracking down on illegal use of students and non-contract temporary laborers in recent years. According to the country's regulation on internships of vocational school students, students' internship should be related to their major and there should be no overtime work and night shifts during the internship.