One of Apple’s big suppliers employed underage workers and pressed its employees to work illegal overtime, according to a Chinese workers’ rights group, in the latest allegations of poor conditions at factories making the iPhone and other devices.
New York-based China Labor Watch said it sent undercover researchers into three Shanghai factories operated by Pegatron, the Taiwanese company producing the low-cost iPhone that is expected to hit the market later this year. It said they found employees under the age of 18 working 10.5 hours a day, discriminatory hiring procedures, harassment and overtime hours that exceeded Chinese limits.
Jason Cheng, Pegatron chief executive, said his company would “investigate fully and take immediate action to correct any violations to Chinese labour laws and our own code of conduct”.