Apple and Foxconn found violating Chinese law by employing large temporary staff: Report

The new Apple iPhones are just a day away from their announcement. In the run-up to the iPhone 11 series launch, a report has emerged highlighting the excessive use of temporary workers in a Foxconn factory.

According to a report in Bloomberg, Apple and its iPhone manufacturing partner, Foxconn, may have broken a Chinese labour law by employing too many temporary workers.

China Labour Watch (CLW) is a non-profit advocacy group which investigates working conditions in Chinese factories. For this investigation, CLW's staff worked undercover in Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant in China. It found that for the month of August, around 50 percent of the workforce was temporary staff. Chinese labour law says that there can't be more than 10 percent temporary staff at any time.

Apple will be able to absorb the additional tariffs imposed by the trade war.

"Apple has the responsibility and capacity to make fundamental improvements to the working conditions along its supply chain, however, Apple is now transferring costs from the trade war through their suppliers to workers and profiting from the exploitation of Chinese workers," noted CLW in its report.

According to a report last month, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had predicted that Apple would be absorbing the additional costs that would result from the ongoing US-China trade war.

Apple has acknowledged that it found the percentage of temporary staff to be higher than their standard and that it is working closely with Foxconn to fix the issue. CLW says that the number has now fallen from 50 percent to 30 percent, but that still violates Chinese labour laws.

Foxconn has said that it is constantly monitoring the allegations at its Zhengzhou plant.

You can read the complete story on Bloomberg.

Apple is scheduled to host its annual iPhone event on 10 September at 10 am PT, which is 10.30 pm IST the same day for viewers in India. Find out the event timing according to your region. The event will be hosted at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, USA.

Like every year, Apple will be live streaming the iPhone event on its own website. However, besides that, this year, for the first time, Apple is also live-streaming the event on YouTube.

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