Apple supplier Foxconn says it has stopped interns from working illegal overtime at its factory in China, after reports emerged that at least six students worked eleven-hour days on iPhone X production lines.

Today's announcement follows a Financial Times report earlier this week that revealed around 3,000 students worked at its iPhone X assembly plant in Zhengzhou, as the firm struggles to catch up with demand for the smartphone after production delays.

foxconn iphone production

A worker assembles iPhones in a Foxconn factory

Apple on Tuesday said an audit had confirmed "instances" of student interns working overtime at the supplier facility in Henan province, and both Apple and Foxconn said they would take remedial action to stop the practice, which breaches Chinese laws preventing children from working more than 40 hours per week.

"Apple is dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," the tech giant said today in a statement given to the BBC. "We know our work is never done and we'll continue to do all we can to make a positive impact and protect workers in our supply chain."

Foxconn, which operates the intern program, told the BBC in a statement that it had taken "immediate action to ensure that no interns are carrying out any overtime work". It added that "interns represent a very small percentage" of its workforce in China and that the breach of labour laws was inconsistent with its own policies.

Foxconn is thought to hire large numbers of seasonal workers each year to assemble the latest iPhone models in time for the busy holiday shopping season. The FT report, citing an anonymous Foxconn employee, said there can be up to 20,000 workers producing up to 300,000 iPhones per day. However, this year it appears the manufacturer has found it particularly challenging to keep up with demand for the iPhone X, which Apple has described as being "off the charts".

As per its supplier responsibility efforts, Apple requires manufacturing partners like Foxconn to limit working hours to no more than 60 hours a week, with a mandatory rest day once every seven days.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Foxconn
Related Forum: iPhone

Top Rated Comments

gnasher729 Avatar
104 months ago
I think some common sense is needed here. There were no children involved. In the UK, for employment someone under 14 is a child and not allowed to work. Someone below school leaving age is allowed to do light work. Someone above school leaving age but below 18 is allowed to work 40 hours a week. At 18, that person is an adult and there are no limits on work time except for EU law. On the other hand, the UK is a country that allows ****** "zero-hour contracts", in other words, you never know how many hours you will work and how much money you will be paid in any week. It might be zero - that's what "zero hours" means. Try to live with that.

The people that we are talking about here are 17 to 19 years old. So the 18 and 19 years old are legally allowed to work overtime. There is an agreement between Apple and Foxconn that interns are not allowed to work overtime. If an 18 or 19 year old intern works overtime, that's in breach of their agreement, but not illegal.

And a 17 year old? They were offered overtime - which shouldn't have happened. The voluntarily accepted that offer, worked overtime, and got paid for it. Compare that to the USA, where companies _love_ to declare their employees as exempt, which means in practice unvoluntary and unpaid overtime. Many employees in the USA would be only to happy if their boss had to ask them if they want to do overtime and they could say "no", and if their boss then had to pay for that overtime.

They only acted when they got found out. Thank heavens for investigative journalists.
Well, they got found out because Apple performs regular audits, and some eagle eyed auditor paid by Apple or Foxconn spotted that some interns did overtime. No investigative journalist involved in this.

What makes this sweatshop labor situation even more disgusting is that it is intentionally ignored by Apple's SJW CEO Tim Cook who simultaneously engages in constant virtue signaling.
Yes, Apple's CEO, who is ordering and paying for the audits and then reporting when something wrong is found, is obviously intentionally ignoring this. Without Apple's audits, you wouldn't have heard of this.

maybe apple should re-evaluate foxconn. it’s frustrating these reports keep surfacing.
These reports keep surfacing because Apple performs audits and publishes the results. Foxconn has over a million employees. If these six are the only problematic cases, then Foxconn is a shining example that many, many employers should try to follow.

This would never happen in the USA.
Do you actually believe this? Seriously? In the USA, where in most places an employee can be fired on the spot because the boss doesn't like his face, this isn't happening? Look at this report: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/fair-dismissal-for-refusal-to-work-christmas-overtime/ Apparently, in the USA you don't have the right to refuse overtime.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnysods Avatar
104 months ago
How benevolent of Foxconn. They only stopped it when they got busted.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThomasJL Avatar
104 months ago
What makes this sweatshop labor situation even more disgusting is that it is intentionally ignored by Apple's SJW CEO Tim Cook who simultaneously engages in constant virtue signaling.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
roberthodgson Avatar
104 months ago
“said there can be up to 300,000 workers producing up to 20,000 iPhones per day.”
I think you reversed the numers at 20,000 phones per day Apple would be backordered for years
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iPhysicist Avatar
104 months ago
That’s the spirit! You can achieve everything in life if you work hard enough. That’s how you get this iPhone X backlog down to zero within weeks. Thank you Chinese students for your service! Thank you.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nxent Avatar
104 months ago
maybe apple should re-evaluate foxconn. it’s frustrating these reports keep surfacing.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

M6 MacBook Pro: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Monday October 27, 2025 9:15 am PDT by
Apple this month refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to follow in early 2026. However, these machines will represent the final update to the current design, with Apple reportedly developing a completely new version of the MacBook Pro packed with next-generation hardware...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
macos tahoe

Here Are Apple's Release Notes for macOS Tahoe 26.1

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:21 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of macOS Tahoe 26.1, which means the update will likely see a public launch next week. The release candidate includes notes on what's in the update, so we have a full picture of the new features that Apple has included. macOS Tahoe 26.1 adds AutoMix support over AirPlay, improved FaceTime audio...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...