Apple's New iPhone Built With Illegal Overtime Teen Labor (bloomberg.com)

Apple's main supplier in Asia has been employing high-school students working illegal overtime to assemble the iPhone X in an effort to catch up with demand after facing production delays, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing several teenagers involved. From a report: A group of 3,000 students from the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School were sent to work at the local facility run by Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, known as Foxconn, as part of a three-month stint that was billed as "work experience," and required to graduate, the Financial Times reported. Six of the students told the FT they routinely worked 11-hour days assembling Apple's flagship smartphone, which constitutes illegal overtime for student interns under Chinese law. Apple said an audit did find instances of student interns working overtime, adding that they were employed voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but that they shouldn't have been allowed to work overtime.

Comments

You don't seem to understand

[rsilvergun]

the definition of 'voluntary'. It's no longer voluntary if you've set up a society where you have no other viable options. This is why we don't let people sell themselves into slavery. Because if you're at the point where you're selling yourself into slavery then you're no longer at the point where anything is truly voluntary.

Said it before, I'll say it again, you're not a free man (or woman) so long as somebody else controls your access to food, shelter and medicine. Until then you're one step away from being made to do whatever the person in charge of those things wants.

Re:As long as it is voluntary

[ShanghaiBill]

I doubt if any of this is voluntary. The job itself is not voluntary. All students in all schools are required to work 3 months in a factory (or on a farm) to instill solidarity with the proletariat. The only other option is a 3 month military training stint. They are paid the same wages as an entry level full time worker/farmer/soldier.

I doubt if the overtime is voluntary either. You can't run an assembly line with half the assemblers missing.

Mandatory overtime is legal in America, and is fairly common, so I don't see what the big deal is here. 11 hours of work isn't going to kill anyone, and the majority likely appreciated the extra pay.