On Wednesday, Apple and its largest manufacturing partner in China said that they discovered a small number of students working overtime in their Chinese factory, violating the labor laws in the country.
The discovered overtime student workers are a part of the school internship program at a plant run by Hon Hai Precision Co Ltd (Foxconn). According to the company, these students are working voluntarily for more than 11 hours per day.
In its statement, Apple said, "We discovered instances of student interns working overtime at a supplier facility in China. We've confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime."
The discovery of the violations comes as the company is now working on filling the demand for the iPhone X, which will be shipped to customers this month.
In an earlier report by Financial Times, it said that six students who worked overtime at the plant said that they need to do the program as it is a requirement for them to graduate. The students, aged between 17-19 years old, were also reportedly forced by their schools to do the program.
Foxconn said in their own statement, "Our policies do not allow interns to work more than 40 hours per week on program-related assignments. Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where portions of our campuses have not adhered to this policy." They have also verified that interns are cover a small percentage in their workforce.
Apple has also said they have already sent the staff to the site to address the violations.
In the past, both Apple and Foxconn have been accused of poor labor practices, but Apple has been working on ways to improve their labor practices and do yearly reviews of its supply chains worldwide. They have also reduced the number of underage workers in their supply chains worldwide.
