Foxconn in hot water again
Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon’s Alexa devices in China as part of a Foxconn controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets.
According to the Guardian, Foxconn’s teen recruits are required to work nights and overtime to produce the smart speaker devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws.
The teens are drafted in from schools and technical colleges in and around the central southern city of Hengyang and are classified as “interns”.
Their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them and encourage uncooperative pupils to accept overtime work on top of regular shifts. Some of the pupils making Amazon’s Alexa-enabled Echo and Echo Dot devices along with Kindles have been required to work for more than two months to supplement staffing levels at the factory during peak production periods, researchers found.
More than 1,000 pupils are employed, aged from 16 to 18.
