Young Man Yells At Cloud

Foxconn Admits to Exploiting Interns in Similar Ways as U.S. Employers

Because of globalization, countries and companies are increasingly employing new tactics in order to compete internationally while still keeping costs down. Many Americans have criticized companies for outsourcing jobs to China, and n ow it seems like Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has also taken one of America’s few remaining tools to remain globally competitive - unfair treatment of interns.

The company that manufactures Apple’s iPhone said Tuesday it found underage interns as young as 14 working at one of its factories in China.

Foxconn Technology Group said the interns were found by a company investigation at its factory in the eastern city of Yantai and were sent back to their schools. China’s minimum legal working age is 16.

Foxconn, owned by Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., said it was investigating with schools how the interns were sent to its factory. It didn’t say how many underage interns it found.

“We recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action,” Foxconn said in a statement. “Any Foxconn employee found, through our investigation, to be responsible for these violations will have their employment immediately terminated.”

As many “20-somethings-living-at-home” may know, employers have used the economic crisis to coerce interns to work for less, or even nothing at all, and in clear violation of U.S. labor laws.

From the Department of Labor

The following six criteria must be applied when making this determination:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

It is increasingly likely that one of these conditions is broken at many unpaid internships. Unfortunately, students, who are often scared to report employers for fear of retribution, don’t report these violations as often as they occur.