<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/0...rkers/>
<quote>
Non-profit claims iPad-maker cheated in factory audit
Updated Apple faces increased pressure today after its manufacturing
partner Foxconn was accused of using forced student labour and hiding
underage workers during high-profile independent inspections last
week. Foxconn also makes components for other manufacturers, but Apple
is its most prominent customer.
The Register spoke to Debby Sze Wan Chan, a case worker at Hong Kong
based non-profit Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior
(SACOM). The group has been tracking what is alleges are "involuntary
labour practices" at Foxconn, which makes gear from iPads and iPhones
to games consoles.
She claimed that local governments in China "repay" Foxconn’s decision to locate in their area by shipping off vocational students to work in the factories as interns in order to help cope with the high turnover of employees.
She alleged to The Register that these students are sent to these
factories even if their chosen subjects bear no relation to the work
they will be "forced" to undertake.
“We describe the internships as involuntary or forced labour because
if they don't go to the factory they may not be able to graduate or
they may need to drop out of their courses,” Chan told The Reg.
She added that according to conversations with Foxconn workers, the
recent high-profile inspection of the hardware giant’s Shenzhen
factory by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) was flawed. She said her
group had received information in the form of allegations that the
company had prepared for it by hiding illegal workers.
</quote>
Whenever a man imagines that he need only believe the truth of a
proposition, without evidence - that unbelievers will go to hell, that
Jews drink the blood of infants - he becomes capable of anything
-Sam Harris
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