Now SACOM Blames: “Foxconn Hid Underage Workers from FLA’s Auditors”!
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February 23, 2012 •
According to a latest report from AppleInsider, SACOM blames on Foxconn by saying that the company hid their underage workers from FLA’s auditors who recently visited the Foxconn factories along with ABC News’ team to probe whether Foxconn is involved in violating child labor laws and to reveal the truth about its reportedly poor working conditions for employees.
Actually, the site arranged an interview with a representative of Hong Kong-based nonprofit Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) in which the rep claimed that Foxconn was already prepared for this inspection by the auditors of Fair Labor Association so it succeeded in hiding its underage employees from their eyes.
The report specifically raises the issues of the 16-17 years old workers who are allowed to work under Apple’s supplier code of conduct if local laws don’t obstruct them. However, the permission is subjected to the jobs types and working hours too.
[SACOM project officer Debby Sze Wan] Chan said she had heard from two Foxconn workers in Zhenghou last week that the manufacturer was “prepared for the inspection” by the Fair Labor Association that had been commissioned by Apple and began last week.
“All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments,” Chan reported the workers as having said.
A few Foxconn employees have also reported that the company relaxes certain rules by introducing more break hours just before the visit of auditors to their factories.
Fair Labor Association president Auret van Heerden told to Nightline in a special segment that he is well aware of tactics made by factories officials to deceive auditors but they have sufficient ways and techniques which are enough to dig out the hidden facts about working conditions and violations of rules which fairly protect the rights of workers.
Chan’s organization also criticizes student labor in Chinese factories and blames that local Chinese governments are involved in forcing schools to ask their students for doing work in Foxconn for internships even in those areas which aren’t related to their subjects of study.
Apple and its partner Foxconn both have been facing immense pressures from media, human rights activists, and labor organizations over reportedly miserable conditions in their factories where iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are manufactured and assembled.
Apple has made its best efforts to show the world that the company has a strict policy over labor laws and working conditions for employees and its strategy to protect human rights in the factories are quite transparent and crystal clear. But everyday comes with some nasty news for Apple….perhaps the company should have to do more in this concern for wiping out the blames over it.
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