Chinese newspaper Shanghai Daily reports that thousands of Chinese students have been pushed to work at a Foxconn plant instead of attending school. According to the paper, which cited online posts from students from Huai’an in Jiangsu Province, classes were suspended at the start of the new semester, and students were driven to a Foxconn factory to meet demand for production of the new iPhone.
The students were paid 1,550 yuan (US $243.97) a month for a six-day work week, while having to pay for their own food and accommodations, one student wrote, claiming that Foxconn did not inform parents or sign agreements with the students. Other students from at least five colleges backed up the information, saying they were forced to work 12 hours a day.
Foxconn responded in a statement that its interns are free to leave at any time, and that a recent audit of three facilities found no evidence of pressuring interns to participate, Bloomberg reports. Apple has previously confronted reports of poor working conditions in Foxconn’s factories, accepting some responsibility for its partner’s issues while vowing to use audits and high standards to achieve improvements.
