Published in News

Apple and Foxconn improve working conditions

by on22 August 2012

But there’s still more to do

After getting in the press for all the wrong reasons, manufacturing giant Foxconn and its principal client Apple finally seem to be improving working conditions in Chinese factories.

The Fair Labor Association reported on Tuesday that Foxconn managed to improve working conditions by cutting working hours. Under new Chinese labor legislation, Foxconn will have to reduce working hours by as much as a third by 2013.

Additionally, Foxconn pledged to cut overtime to less than nine hours a week from the current 20 hours. A Foxconn exec told Reuters that cutting overtime and working hours is challenging, as the company has to employ more workers, which also means providing more dorms and recreation facilities.

However, there is still a lot of room for improvement and the China Labor Watch claims that many Foxconn workers are still forced to work 60 hours a week. Worse yet, they are expected to complete the workload of 66 hours in just 60 hours. In other words, although working hours are being cut, Foxconn seems to believe that workers need to be even more productive than before the cuts.

More here.

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