Foxconn flouts labour law with under-16 interns in Shandong

Foxconn Technology has admitted that interns as young as 14 have been found working at a subsidiary in Yantai, Shandong province.

"Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks," Foxconn said yesterday. "This is not only a violation of China's labour law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions."

The company's admission confirmed international labour advocacy group China Labor Watch's reports that under-age interns had been forced to work at Foxconn's Yantai subsidiary. The group placed most of the blame on the schools involved.

But a publicity official at Yantai Engineering & Technology College, one of the vocational colleges implicated, said yesterday that it had sent more than 2,000 students to a Foxconn factory for a one-month internship programme earlier this month in response to an appeal from the city government.

She admitted that some of the interns were under the age of 16, but said that was because there was no official age restriction for "social practice activities". She added that the college had taken up labour issues with Foxconn after students complained about long working hours and frequent overtime.

A news report on the college's official website on September 19 said interns from the college had been working at the Foxconn factory since 2010 as part of a government initiative to help ease a labour shortage. "We know that internships are critically important for vocational schools like us, however, we didn't approach Foxconn for such an internship arrangement, but simply followed an order from the government," the official said.