Billionaire CEO of Apple’s largest supplier chafes at China overtime caps

The billionaire chairman and chief executive of Foxconn Technology Group, Apple’s main iPhone assembler and the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, argues that China’s “unreasonable” restrictions on overtime hours hurts his workers and the company’s competitiveness.

Taking aim at criticism Foxconn overworks its employees to meet soaring demand before the annual holiday shopping season, Terry Gou Tai-ming told shareholders of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, the group’s main listed unit, on Friday.

Gou, who founded Hon Hai in 1974, said Foxconn workers actually want to work more hours and that forcing them to put in less time reduces their income.

Foxconn, which as China’s largest private employer keeps about a million on its payroll, has drawn fire for years over practises such as allowing overtime to soar during the peak season, when it sharply ramps up production to get devices to market in time for the holidays.

Gou, however, said that was normal practise in other parts of the world, and stressed that Foxconn’s biggest challenge now was not labour but US-Chinese tensions that threaten to upend the global supply chain.