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
105 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
105 months ago
How benevolent of Foxconn. They only stopped it when they got busted.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThomasJL Avatar
105 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
105 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
105 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
105 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 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected [Updated]

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3

Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
AirTag 2 Mock Feature

Apple AirTag 2: Four New Features Found in iOS 26 Code

Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products. Here's what's supposedly coming: An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
maxresdefault

iOS 26 Code Leak Reveals Apple Smart Home Hub Details

Thursday December 11, 2025 4:02 pm PST by
Apple is working on a smart home hub that will rely heavily on the more capable version of Siri that's coming next year. We've heard quite a bit about the hub over the last two years, but a recent iOS 26 code leak provides additional insight into what we can expect and confirms rumored features. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Macworld claims to have access to an ...