|
Download Foxconn Technology Group has vowed to investigate the hiring of underage interns at its plant in Yantai, Shandong province. The company has confirmed that vocational school students age 14 to 16 had worked at the factory for three weeks. "An internal investigation by our company found that some participants in a short-term student internship program administered at our base in Yantai are under the legal working age of 16," the company said in a statement. "This is not only a violation of China's Labor Law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy, and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to educational institutions." The statement added that Foxconn will work with the educational institutions to fully investigate "how this happened and the actions that must be taken to ensure that it can never happen again." The company admitted it is responsible for the violations and said it has apologized to each of the students who were involved in the case. It also pledged to fire any employees who were found to be responsible for the violations. Louis Woo, spokesman for Foxconn, said the company immediately began an investigation into the matter last week after learning of the underage employees from an NGO, which he declined to name. The allegations were eventually substantiated, prompting the company on Monday to send home all of the students under the age of 16 who had been working at the factory. | 
