Apple Investigates Claim That Illegal Student Labor Was Used To Assemble Apple Watch (bgr.com) 69
Apple is currently investigating a report that Apple Watch supplier Quanta Computer relied upon illegally employed students to help manufacture the company's exceedingly popular wearable. "Originally brought to light by The Financial Times, the report details how dozens of students were ostensibly working as interns, but in reality were working assembly line shifts, often throughout the night. Some students even reported working six days a week in 12-hour shifts," reports BGR. From the report: The allegations stem from a report put together by SACOM, a workers rights group based out of Hong Kong. In compiling its report, SACOM notes that it interviewed upwards of 28 students. The FT report reads in part: "The alleged abuses echo the labour violations uncovered last year in Apple's iPhone supply chain at its Foxconn Zhengzhou factory, where both Apple and Foxconn acknowledged that student interns had illegally worked overtime. The two companies said at the time that they would end the practice of student interns working extra hours." In a statement on the matter, Apple said that it is "urgently" looking into the aforementioned claims and that they have a "zero tolerance" policy for companies who try to skirt around Apple's workplace guidelines.
Re: Forced internship is salvery (Score:4, Interesting)
shut up.
I was an intern and made time-and-a-half overtime and double time on holidays. really helped with the college bills.
properly paid internship is a blessing.
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it was called being intern, plenty of intern jobs pay. screw the ones with no pay.
also, I got job at the place after graduating. great deal
Re:Forced internship is salvery (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: Forced internship is slavery (Score:2, Informative)
The article mentioned the students were doing work not even in their fields. Third party or not, Apple outsourced it.
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When I was first in college, I worked as a temp in a factory over summer. I'll always remember an "engineer" there who would come by and try to see how he could improve the lines for packing batteries. He was all excited that I was an engineering student and kept asking me stuff to help the line personally. Except it usually went like this: "Would this improve the process for you?" No. "Oh ok. Just brainstorming a few ideas here." Next day I come in and he did what I said wouldn't help. And it made wor
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Using interns for your main assembly labor force can be wrong, but for engineering students, assembling for a few weeks or so can be HIGHLY instructional. Exposing students to production processes, manufacturing tolerances, and QC and such is a great way to get them to think, truly, about design-for-manufacturing as a core belief rather than a check-box as the end of a design.
Not just the engineering side, but the people side. More than half the problems I deal with are playground politics between labor and management.
Communist party says its part of education ... (Score:3)
Internship as part of a high school or tech school degree is a form of slavey. Assembling an apple watch has zero educational value.
Actually the communist party leaders says it is educational, educational to the degree that it is a required component of education for some. In particular for college students who are on a track to be managers or leaders or some sort. These communist party leaders argue that these future managers and leaders must understand the worker's perspective from their own first hand experience. A requirement of spending time on a farm or in a factory is not unheard of in communist china.
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again? (Score:1)
Dude it was right in the summary (Score:2)
Yes that was happening before, as the very summary of the article said. So Foxconn said they had stopped it, but this report shows perhaps it was not stopped after all.
Which is also what the summary said.
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NAZI PROPAGANDIST KEN DOLL YOUR LIES ARE ON FULL DISPLAY AND YOU CAN'T DELETE THEM THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES KEN DOLL
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Come on then, what are these lies and what will the consequences be? I am genuinely interested.
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They didn't build their bot to actually give that information. You'll have to wait for version 2.0
I'm just curious where the consequences fall on the consequence spectrum - are we talking a 5-minute time out with the phone taken away; or being put up against the wall 1950s communist purge style?
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I'm trying to remember the last time I saw someone with a Rolex watch - they're not exactly what I'd call a popular brand either. Though with their prices they could be hundreds of times less popular than, say, Timex, while still leading them in sales.
Re:I call bullshit... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Right (Score:1)
I'm sure Apple is devastated...
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"Off Topic"
The PEOPLES republic (Score:1)
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I thought communism was supposed to be pro-worker.
It *is* pro-worker. It's work until you die, and maybe you'll get a chocolate ration this year or a bullet in the head, which will be billed to your family(if any are still alive). It's famously beside the "livestock belongs to everyone" and "throw them into a gulag for not giving enough to the state."
you know..they could just make the watches here.. (Score:4, Informative)
If Apple is so concerned about slave labor, rather than having this keep coming up year after year..
they could you know..just make the watches here in America..
like they used to with Macs and Apples years ago..
Just saying..
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Skirting Guidelines (Score:5, Insightful)
they have a "zero tolerance" policy for companies who try to skirt around Apple's workplace guidelines.
Maybe they'd have more success if they renamed that to 'mandatory workplace requirements'.
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This deserves modding up -- it's insightful
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No it isn't. Working as a nurse is worse than working in a Chinese factory assembling iPhones?.
Back injuries are very common in the nursing field. I can't recall the source but moving patients from beds to gurneys and back is more dangerous than a lot of industrial work.
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Worse is pretty subjective. But it's certainly just as tough, if not considerably tougher. Long hours, relatively low pay, physically demanding, mentally exhausting, lots of accountability but relatively little independence, etc.
As for farms, let's quote a faith-based organisation that works to alleviate the conditions of farmers: "Farm workers are among the poorest workers in this country. Child farm workers risk their safety, health, and education working our fields because their parents can’t earn
reputation (Score:1)
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if this is true it will endanger Apple's reputation even though he is not the one who does it
And they will deserve it, since they know what they're doing. If they actually gave a damn about workers they would have kept manufacturing here in the USA. where they used to have it.
Commie Phone (Score:2)
Apple investigating themselves again (Score:1)
Let me guess, not guilty!
You think anyone really cares? (Score:2)
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