FLA Reports What It Saw in Apple Plants in China

The Fair Labor Association (FLA), which Apple hired to look into working conditions at Foxconn plants in China a few months ago, said late Thursday that it had interviewed 35,000 workers and found no instances of child labor or forced labor. What it did find was people working an unsafe 60 hours or more a week in violation of even China’s labor laws (49 hours) to make “quick money.” Foxconn has reportedly pledged to reduce overtime and hire and house tens of thousands more people by July of 2013, which the FLA called “an unprecedented commitment.” Workers weren’t always paid fairly for the overtime and 64% of the workers said the basic wage of a few hundred dollars a month was insufficient although more than the Chinese minimum wage.

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