Apple investigates allegations over Chinese youth labour

Apple is investigating a Chinese factory that assembles its iWatch after a report revealed it could be using forced student labour to “work like robots”.

According to a Hong Kong based charity Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, students aged 16 to 19 were forced to work to get their degrees and had to do night shifts .

The non-governmental organisation interviewed 28 students earlier this year and all of them said they had not voluntarily applied to work in the factory and had “internship” contracts.

“Our graduation certificate will be withheld by the school if we refuse to come,” said one student, according to SACOM.

“We are like robots on the production lines,” another student told SACOM. “We repeat the same procedure for hundreds and thousands of times every day, like a robot.”

Apple spokeswoman Wei Gu said: “We are urgently investigating the report that student interns added in September are working overtime and night shifts. We have zero tolerance for failure to comply with our standards and we ensure swift action and appropriate remediation if we discover code violations."

In November 2017, Apple and one of its biggest suppliers, Foxconn, said that student interns illegally worked excessive overtime at a Chinese factory.

Since last year, Apple has required suppliers to limit the number of student interns at factories to no more than 10% of their total staff.