Passed off as interns, forced to work at night, after school and for many hours in a row, without rest. Behind the production of Amazon's Alexa devices there would be the exploitation of Chinese children as young as 16.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousPassed off as interns, forced to work at night, after school and for many hours in a row, without rest. Behind the production of Amazon's Alexa devices there would be the exploitation of Chinese children as young as 16. The news was reported by The Guardian, which came into possession of exclusive documents from China Labor Watch, the observatory of Chinese workers' rights.
They would have been recruited by the Amazon supplier, Foxconn (already accused for several years for child exploitation in Apple's production chain) to achieve higher production targets. An alarming situation emerges in the investigation of the English daily, namely that many Chinese children and teenagers have been asked by the giant to work at night and work overtime to produce smart speaker devices, all in violation of labor regulations.
According to the documents, the teenagers - enrolled in schools and colleges in and around Hengyang city - are classified as "interns" and their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them to work. Teachers are asked to encourage pupils to take up jobs and to work overtime, as well as regular shifts.
According to The Guardian, some of the students who made Amazon's Alexa-enabled Echo and Echo Dot devices alongside Kindles have worked more than two months of night to ensure that the company reaches higher production levels. It would be more than a thousand aged boys 16 and 18 years.
Let's clarify: Chinese factories are allowed to employ students aged 16 and over, but not to make them work at night or overtime. Foxconn admits that the students did indeed work illegally, saying it is proceeding to resolve the situation.
"We have doubled the supervision and monitoring of the internship program with each partner school to ensure that, under no circumstances, interns [will] be allowed to work overtime or work nights."
The company after the investigation clearly defended itself by saying that "it offers students, all of legal working age, the opportunity to gain practical work experience and practice training in a number of sectors that will allow them to find employment after graduation. Graduation ".
But no one here argues about opportunities as much as about the ways of working they rhyme with exploitation.
An Amazon spokesperson said the company will not tolerate violations of its supplier code of conduct.
"If we find violations, we take appropriate action," the spokesperson said - "We are investigating these allegations and addressing this issue with Foxconn."
Some teenagers involved in the investigation say that factory work is not relevant to their courses and that they are often forced to work overtime.
“I tried to tell the manager that I didn't want to work overtime. But the director informed my teacher and the teacher said that if I didn't work overtime, I wouldn't be able to do an internship at Foxconn and that would affect my graduation application and scholarship at school, "he says. a boy.
“I have no choice, but I can't stand such tiring work,” says another.
The students go to integrate the organic framework, in a document we read that:
"To meet labor shortages and reduce hiring costs, we would like to partner with local schools to recruit interns."
Company documents show Foxconn pays interns 16,54 yen per hour, or 0,14 cents, including overtime. The interns would be almost 2 thousand, an exploitation that is added to many others perpetrated by multinationals.
Read also:
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- Apple, Samsung and Sony accused of exploiting child labor in the mines of the Congo
Dominella Trunfio
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