Apple's China Factories Treat Workers 'Like Machines'

Workers at the Foxconn factories in China that produce millions of Apple products per year are treated “inhumanely, like machines,” according to a new report. The investigation reveals the poor treatment the 500,000 workers endure as the factories work to meet Western demand for iPhones and iPads: excessive hours, strict rules, and an “anti-suicide” pledge they were urged to sign after a number of employees took their own lives.

Workers routinely take overtime in excess of the 36 hours legally allowed per month; one payslip showed an employee had taken 98 hours in one month. In addition, workers are sometimes pressured to take just one day out of 13 off. Workers with poor performance are sometimes publicly humiliated, and must endure draconian rules—one was forced to sign a “confession letter” because he used a hairdryer. Click for more from the Guardian. (More Foxconn stories.)