Slashdot Mirror
Apple Admits to Occasional Excessive Work Hours
rev_media writes "After Apple's release of a report on the labor conditions in their Chinese factories, many took issue with the deliberately vague wording used in the statement. The BBC is now reporting that Apple has admitted to 'excessive' working hours in some locations, and they would be ensuring that a 'normal' 60-hour work week will be adhered to from now on." From that article: "'We found no instances of forced overtime and employees confirmed in interviews that they could decline overtime requests without penalty,' said Apple in a statement. The firm said there were 'overtime limit exceptions in unusual circumstances' and that it supported a healthy work-life balance. But it did not specify what the triggers for 'unusual circumstances' were and what upper limit it set on working hours. Mr Kuczkiewicz said Apple had not asked workers what they preferred - a decent wage or minimum wage and overtime."
heck, the company i work for, right here in the US, considers that 'normal'. Of course, we do get payed 20 hours overtime, and they don't call it normal.. they call it 'mandatory overtime'. Hypothetically I suppose you can refuse, but I bet you'd get real far doing that amiright? The salaried employees get effedinthe-a, but they always do when it comes to overtime.
ask some code monkeys who get slaved to desks for 60 hours a week about it, too. I'm sure they'll tell you their normal work week was.. 60 hours.
And yes, it's practically impossible to do anything but work when you're putting in that much time. Once you figure an hour for travel, and an hour / hour and a half for food and hygiene, you're left with scant enough time to even post drivel on slashdot.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
That's not quite that bad ... in China you work on Saturdays as well as part of Sundays ...
Cogito, ergo sum, fosho!
I live in Hong Kong, I've visited Chinese factories. There is nothing about "work ethic" as perhaps practised by Chinese immigrants trying to get ahead. Chinese factories are the prototypical sweatshops; many would easily pass for Dickensian "Satanic mills". When there's a deadline, the staff are told they have compulsory, unpaid overtime. The doors are often locked. (There have been many tragedies when fires break out and the exits are all locked.) Wages are often withheld. Troublemakers (eg, union organisers) may be arrested by police or just beaten up.
As a high-schooler, that concept is one of the most frequently repeated ones in my [predominantly Asian] high school.
Thank your parents for your opportunity. Few Chinese have your luck.
I use to work 70+ hour weeks at Apple in Cupertino, and I see no reports about my situation! lol :-)
This is just silly. Do a little studying of Asian cultures. For example, you will find that for thousands of years, the Japanese have always had very strict (can't think of a better word right now) work ethics. So many of the activities of Japanese culture use to revolve around doing things with a goal of perfection. Even things like the way tea was prepared had a goal of perfection. There are tons of Japanese traditions where it is a "do" or "way of", a spiritual journey. For exmaple, Kyudo (Way of the Bow), Kendo (way of the sword), Bushido (way of the warrior) and Kado (way of flowers). Trying to say that the work ethics of Asians is because of us greedy Americans is just stupid and ignorant.
General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
Chinese labour law is very clear on this issue and the comments attributed to Apple are laughable. It is unlawful for employees in China to work 60 hours per week, even if they request it. Chinese law provides for a 40 hour working week with quite limited legal overtime. Apple have chosen to permit these unlawful working hours.
It is very unlikely that Apple is unaware of this and this is just exploitation of workers by Apple's subcontractors.
900 million Chinese earn less than USD 300 per year and yes, that is poverty. You cannot live comfortably on that amount in China. No-one wants to work 60 hours per week, but it is not difficult to persuade someone to do that, contrary to the law, if they are very poor. That is why they do it - it has nothing to do with the Asian work ethic.
Apple should be ashamed of itself for participating in this exploitative conduct, and then trying to gloss over it.
Apple has done this before, right? They used to have t-shirts in the old Mackintosh camp that said something like, "90 hours / week and loving it".
T-shirt (sweatshirt) attesting to this. (wonder if the shirt was made in a sweat shop...)
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Working for your own business cannot be compared to working those same conditions for others. Every business owner works hours similar to those you've stated. I used to worh 3-4 months straight for my business. People who work convenience stores near me open at 7 and close 11 to midbight every day, seven days a week, with only the owner working. Obviously, they find it better for them than walking out and finding a job in the community, for whatever the motivation.
Put identity in the browser.
Possible exception may have been Tibet. . .
Tibet was a theocracy with an upper class who did no work, but lived on the backs of others, although many of the upper class were themselves slaves of the theocracy in their own way.
It wasn't necessarily a very nice place, but the Chinese have certainly worked no improvement on it.
For bias purposes I'll point out that I am a lifelong Buddhist.
KFG
Modafinil. It kicks ass. I jointly own a web development company, and we run several very high profile sites. I have slept 6 hours this week (we launched a site wednesday, it got dugg thursday, we've been worked off our feet since).
Let us be frank here. Western companies -- European, American, and (to a lesser extent) Japanese companies -- do treat their workers much better than Chinese companies.
Foxconn is a Chinese company headquartered in Taiwan. Most Chinese just do not care about the principles of the EICC. In this very forum (Slashdot), you see a Chinese condemning the 3rd-party who raised the matter (of the abuse) to Apple management.
Notice the total lack of Taiwanese system houses (like Acer) on the list of companies committed to the EICC. Taiwanese companies are far more likely to manufacture their products in China. Notice the total indifference (by Chinese from Taiwan) to worker abuse in China. When was the last time that you read a story about how Taiwanese companies corrected an incident of worker abuse? The Chinese (in Taiwan and elsewhere) just do not care. Hence, Taiwanese companies continue to condone -- and even -- commit worker abuse.
Check out a damning report by the "San Francisco Chronicle". It reported that Taiwanese companies subject their slaves to physical abuse if they do not meet their quota.