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| Apple has sold tens of millions of the smartwatch since it launched three years ago (AFP Photo/Saeed KHAN) |
Beijing (AFP) - Apple is investigating a factory in southwest China after a labour rights group said the tech giant's supplier forced student workers to work "like robots" to assemble its popular Apple Watch.
The report
raises fresh questions about the practices of suppliers Apple uses to build its
gadgets in the country following the deaths of a number of workers in 2010
apparently linked to tough working conditions.
Many of the
students were compelled to work in order to get their vocational degrees and
had to do night shifts, according to an investigation by Hong Kong-based NGO
Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM).
SACOM
interviewed 28 students at the plant in Chongqing municipality over the summer,
and all of them said they had not voluntarily applied to work there, according
to the report published last week.
They worked
under the guise of "internships", SACOM said, a practice rights
groups say is widespread in China as manufacturers pair up with vocational
schools to supply workers and fill labour shortages when they ramp up
production for new models or the Christmas rush.
"Our
graduation certificate will be withheld by the school if we refuse to
come," said one student majoring in e-commerce, according to SACOM.
The US titan
has sold tens of millions of Apple Watches -- which can cost up to $1,499 --
since it was launched three years ago and chief executive Tim Cook said it was
the most popular watch in the world.
Earlier
labour abuse allegations focused on workers building iPhones and other gadgets
for Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn.
As the
world's largest contract electronics maker Foxconn assembles products in huge
plants in China where it employs more than one million workers.
In 2010, at
least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists
blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of
staff.
Although
Foxconn denied the accusations, it raised wages by nearly 70 percent at its China
plants in 2010.
Urgent
probe
Foxconn
also admitted to intern violations in 2013, with overtime and night shift
problems similar to those levelled at the Apple Watch supplier this year.
Manufacturing
internships are permitted under Chinese labour law in some cases, but SACOM
found the work has "literally nothing to do with learning" and
violated some of the country's labour law provisions permitting intern work in
factories.
"We
are like robots on the production lines," one 18-year-old student told
SACOM. "We repeat the same procedure for hundreds and thousands of times
every day, like a robot."
Others said
they were put on the night shift working from 8 pm to 8 am with minimal breaks,
according to SACOM.
The
Chongqing factory is operated by Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese electronics
manufacturer, and also produces for other brands. Quanta did not immediately
respond to an AFP request for comment.
But Apple
spokeswoman Wei Gu said: "We are urgently investigating the report that
student interns added in September are working overtime and night shifts."
Wei noted
Quanta Chongqing was a new Apple supplier and had been audited three times
between March and June without finding student interns.
Student
workers told SACOM student labour was widespread at the factory.
Assembly
lines that repieced together Apple Watches that had failed a quality check were
almost entirely made up of student workers, one intern told SACOM.
"The
factory would not be able to operate without student workers," a student
told SACOM.
The NGO
demanded Apple investigate and bring the labour practises in line with the
firm's own policies and those of the local and central Chinese government.
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