Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, admitted yesterday it had employed interns as young as 14 at one of its factories in China.
The admission is likely to draw further criticism of how the manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone device is treating its workers.
Foxconnhas been struggling to make its operations compliant with Chinese labour laws, given both its own huge scale and deep-rooted habits of violation across the country’s manufacturing sector. Responding to Chinese media reports and a statement by China Labor Watch, a US-based non-governmental organisation, Foxconn said an internal investigation had found some participants in a student internship programme at its plant in Yantai were under the legal working age of 16.