Apple has confirmed a new report coming out of the Financial Times newspaper that alleged students had worked illegal overtime assembling the new iPhone X.
However, the company has also disputed claims that students were forced to work overtime, saying they did so voluntarily. Apple and Foxconn have since taken remedial action as students should not have been permitted to work overtime in the first place.
The report referred to 3,000 students, aged from 17 to 19, that had participated in a 3-month long work experience program from local high schools.
The students claimed they were were forced to carry out the work, saying refusing to do so would prevent them from graduating. Six student had spoken to the paper and told them they had regularly worked 11 hours a day assembling the handset.
One of the 18 year old students said they were being forced into the work by their school and that he had helped assemble up to 1,200 iPhone X units a day.
Apple has since performed an audit and confirmed, yes, the illegal overtime did take place.
However, it was completely voluntary.
We’ve confirmed the students worked voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but they should not have been allowed to work overtime.
Apple regularly audits its manufacturers to watch out for illegal practices such as this.