Topline: Amazon is investigating reports that Foxconn hired teenage school children as “interns” to help keep up with production of Alexa devices. Labor activists claim the children worked overnight and overtime in breach of local labor laws.
- More than 1,000 students aged 16 to 18 were hired from schools and technical colleges in the southeastern Chinese city of Hengyang to produce Alexa, Kindle, Echo and Echo Dot devices, interviews and documents leaked to the Guardian by China Labor Watch reveal.
- Foxconn paid interns $2.34 (16.54 yuan an hour), and a $1.43 basic hourly salary to make the Alexa-enabled devices, which start at $50. This is lower than the $2.86 (20.18 yuan) an hour paid to experienced agency workers, also hired by Foxconn.
- Those working on Echo and Echo Dot devices were required to work for two months to meet production targets when the firm reportedly struggled to employ permanent workers. Teachers were paid to accompany the students, and were encouraged to make uncooperative teenagers work extra hours and through the night. The students were paid for the additional hours, Foxconn said.
- The Taiwanese firm admitted it hired the students illegally, adding that “lax oversight” from management allowed the practice to take place. It said it acted immediately to boost its oversight and monitoring to ensure that interns would not be allowed to work nights and overtime.
- But the firm, which also produces iPhones for Apple, defended employing schoolchildren, saying it provides “practical work experience” and “on-the-job training” to prepare them for work after graduation. It also cited “low labour cost” in documents justifying the move. Students told researchers that the work was irrelevant to their courses.
- In China, students are allowed to work from the age of 16, however they are not legally permitted to work overnight or overtime.
Crucial quote: Amazon told the Guardian: “We are urgently investigating these allegations and addressing this with Foxconn at the most senior level. Additional teams of specialists arrived on-site yesterday to investigate, and we’ve initiated weekly audits of this issue.”
Surprising fact: Amazon has sold upwards of 100 million Alexa devices, it said in January.
Key background: Foxconn is a key player in the supply chain for top-of-the-line of consumer devices like the Apple iPhone, Macbook Pro and Google Pixel smartphones but has faced years of negative publicity over its hiring practices and conditions faced by workers in its massive Chinese factories.
