Apple under Fire for Employing Students in Production of Apple Watches
Apple is facing problems with the production of the Apple Watch. According to a Financial Times article, Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese supplier of Apple has been allegedly been exploiting high school students to manufacture the Apple Watch in China. This problem was highlighted and brought out by Sacom, which is a humanitarian association.
Once brought to light, Apple started taking this matter seriously and is also focusing much more on its production line. Sacom is also not leaving this matter and is going forward with investigations. The company interviewed 28 high school students who were used in the production of the watch and turns out that most of the students were of the age of 16 to 18.
Troubled Waters
These young children were illegally employed and were forced to work for this production. They were also made to work even at night in their factory in Chongqing. Their work time was from 8 AM to 8 PM. And the worse part? This was all part of an unpaid internship.
Students were also forced to do this internship. Their teacher had threatened them saying that they would not be able to graduate without taking part in this production, and kids were blackmailed by threatening their parents too. Sacom also brought out the fact that most students had nothing to do with the electronics sector, and that in turn made this so-called “partnership” much more terrible and useless.
Swift Action
Apple in response came out with an official response saying that the company would take up this case very seriously and that it does not tolerate partners and suppliers who do not meet the company’s expectations. The company has assured that prompt and appropriate action would be taken against the supplier.
Though it is heartwarming to see Apple take an active interest in this case, this is not the first time that Apple is facing such charges in China. With repeated incidents like these already in the record, it was expected that the company already make sure that there are enough measures taken to make sure that this does not happen again.
