Foxconn Workers Aren’t Happy With Reduced Working Weeks

Posted on Apr 2 2012 - 7:36am by Editorial Staff

The visits on the initial request that Apple has made to the Fair Labor Association (FLA) will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China – after on which the Fair Labor Association group tasked with auditing a Foxconn Technology Group plant in Shenzhen, China had found a ‘ton of issues’ that need fixing. The FLA reports that it interviewed 35,000 workers at Foxconn factories in Guanlan, Longhua, and Chengdu.

In an Interview with Reuters, employees have expressed concern that the new 36-hour per month overtime limit will negatively affect their pay packet. One worker, 25-year-old Chen Yamei, said that “we are here to work and not to play, so our income is very important,” and that a figure closer to 60 hours would be more reasonable.

“We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money,” said Wu, a 23-year-old employee from Hunan province in south China. Foxconn said it will reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime. “We are here to work and not to play, so our income is very important,” said Chen Yamei, 25, a Foxconn worker from Hunan who said she had worked at the factory for four years.

“We have just been told that we can only work a maximum of 36 hours a month of overtime. I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little,” she added. Chen said she now earned a bit over 4,000 yuan a month ($634).

About the Author

Editorial Staff at I2Mag is a team of subject experts.