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Apple Admits to Using Child Labour in China
- Thread starter ScottishDuck
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Well, I'd be curious to know how many hours these 15 year old are working a week. The fact that they have 15 year olds working there, in and of itself is nothing worth noting. Only matters if they're working full schedules and not attending to school, IMO.
When I was 15, in 1994, most of us wanted jobs. The only place around here where you could work at age 15 were farms and Dairy Queen. Not everyone is cut out out for farm work (me), and a tiny little Dairy Queen could only employ so many people. I don't like that almost everything you can purchase is made in China, Mexico, or other low-wage places. But, I don't think giving a 15 year old a job is automatically a bad thing. Could be a bad thing, depending on conditions like hours and safety, but it may be ok.
I started working when I was 12 (mowing lawns) and had my first real job when I was 14 (retail stock boy on weekends). I'm not sure what people are so up in arms about, children have been working to support families for thousands of years. So long as the environment isn't abusive, not interfering with their educational opportunities (if they want them) and they're not being exploited, it shouldn't be anyone's business but the family's.
I don't really see how Apple having most of its factories in China necessarily means these particular factories were in China. If they are working full-time I would expect this to be more likely to occur in poorer countries.
Though it could be they were doing some cleaning or something as an evening job, which would be perfectly reasonable.
Though it could be they were doing some cleaning or something as an evening job, which would be perfectly reasonable.
Unless they had to work outrageous times for little pay, I'd say good on Apple. I am 17 and feel quite lucky to have a my job as a music producer (ive had the job 6 months now), as all my friends are unemployed because of the recession. Getting a job at 15 would have certainly made school life much brighter with a bit of £££ in my pocket.
Too wooly, too wishy-washy. Like you guy said above, these kids could be anywhere, working a part-time schedule or anything. I had a job when I was 15.
I am always suspicious when an OP includes no comment or opinion, only a link and quote, that they are just trying to stir things up.
It doesn't look like the posters in this thread have risen to the bait though.
Especially, when the article goes on to explain that it was Apple who hunted down these employees as part of it's effort to root out non-compliance to Apple's employment rules by it's contracted factories.
It doesn't look like the posters in this thread have risen to the bait though.
Especially, when the article goes on to explain that it was Apple who hunted down these employees as part of it's effort to root out non-compliance to Apple's employment rules by it's contracted factories.
Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.
So what's the problem?
So what's the problem?
I have had a job ever since I was 14. As long as they are not working 14 hour days, I don't see the big deal.
15yo is not child labor. What is wrong with liberals?
I was working(albiet not in a factory) at 12!
I was working(albiet not in a factory) at 12!
15yo is not child labor. What is wrong with liberals?
This has nothing to do with "liberals".
Do you mean squawking about child labor in general, or about this particular story involving fifteen-year-olds?
Liberals object to abusive child labor practices. Are you saying you're ok with abusive practices?
Apple didn't admit to using child labour. Apple reported that they uncovered cases of illegal child labour in factories of their suppliers and put a stop to it. If you read Apple's report you will also find that they forced employment agencies to pay back $2.2 million to workers who had been ripped off by charging illegal fees for finding them jobs in factories used by Apple.
No, these kids definitely had been employed in a place where by law they shouldn't have been employed. What the article fails to mention is that it was not a Telegraph reporter who uncovered this, but Apple did and reported about it in a report that was discussed in Macrumors. From the report:
Sounds like Apple is doing the best it can to correct this and prevent it from happening in the future.
Unless they've left school (and compulsory education in China finishes at 15) then if they are working full time then it is child labour and that isn't a good thing as you need an education to be successful in the world.
I don't really see how this is a liberal vs conservative issue unless you are incredibly right-wing and don't believe in education for all.
I mean even the British National Party believe in education for all...
I'd also wonder if the person building my machine was skilled at the job, or was instead someone waiting in a labor line on the street and paid a few pennies to work 12-18 hours a day. I also wonder what would happen if China was suddenly cut off. What would happen to all of these companies that sunk all of their manufacturing into factories that they can't control. It's one thing to put a factory in China because you want to sell more products in China, but another thing when you lay off workers in your own country and move to contracted factories in China because it's cheap.