Child Labour Issues in Apple/Foxconn - Research Paper Example

Child labor is the hiring of children in any labor that inhibits them to attend school regularly and robs their childhood. This act is physically, mentally, morally, socially harmful, and dangerous. Child labor is prohibited by legislation all over the world. Child labor is employing anyone 18 years and below.

Foxconn technology group is a worldwide electronics contract-producing company with headquarters in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan. By revenue, it is the third-largest information technology firm. It manufactures above forty percent of electronic products worldwide. Foxconn is the main manufacturer of Apple’s products and other renowned electronic creators. Foxconn has over one million employees, it is China’s most prominent and largest private employer.

Foxconn has been in multiple controversies over the last few years. Its laborers work in harsh conditions and they experience safety problems. In order to reduce its cost of production and the need to have flexible labor, Foxconn has been employing underage workers. In 2010, suicides that happened in the company brought about a labor shortage. The provincial government of Henan helped with the Gap by leading 100,000 students to work as interns in the Shenzhen manufacturing companies. Students were provided with a nine-day notice and told that those who will decline to comply shall not be permitted to graduate. In Foxconn, interns have now become an important component in its labor force comprising of fifteen percent of the labor force. This makes Foxconn the biggest internship program worldwide that forces interns to work rather than learn. Attendance is monitored by teachers in the company and interns as young as 14 have been employed thus violating Chinese laws. Foxconn uses interns in order to avoid culpability and detection. These interns are deprived of protections and standard benefits and are susceptible to poor working conditions as their adult counterparts (Chan, Pun, and Selden, 12)

The United States-based China Labour Watch investigated and found out that the children are given tasks that are similar to adults, they worked in rooms that are not well-ventilated and these children were not paid on time. In addition, their salaries were also minimal. Some schools were said to be closed so that students could work in Foxconn companies and were unwillingly required to work for twelve hours a day. Foxconn came out to say that students only make up 2.7 percent of the total workforce and it’s the schools that employ the students under the local government supervision. In addition, the Chinese labor watch said that Foxconn did not take time to check the ages of its employees and it should be accountable for its acts as well as the schools that sent their students. After the Chinese labor watch allegations, Foxconn shouldered the blame and apologized to each student adding that the employee responsible for the violations will be held to account and terminated from work. In addition, the company admitted to violating Chinese laws and also its own policy and said that measures are in place to return the students to their learning institutions (Williams, Steve, and Steve Williams, 1).

I do not recommend my classmates to support this firm because it denies students opportunities to develop themselves educationally and it is against the law for firms to employ underage staff. Lastly, I also disagree with this child labor incident because when children are used they are likely to face occupational hazards due to their naivety.