Hundreds of schoolchildren, some as young as 16, have been forced to work long hours assembling Amazon’s Alexa devices in China.
Leaked documents from Amazon supplier Foxconn show that more than 1,000 teenagers have been brought in from schools and universities to fill a staffing shortfall as the electronics maker struggles to keep up with production demands for the new devices.
Under Chinese labour laws, children as young as 16 are permitted to take jobs in factories cuh as Foxconn's but are restricted from working overtime or night shifts.
Foxconn, which is also the main supplier of Apple’s iPhone, said it had stopped school-age interns from working overtime in its factories in 2017, when a scandal erupted after it emerged that 3,000 students had been sent on “compulsory work experience".
Documents seen by The Guardian show students assembling the smart speaker devices were encouraged to accept overtime by the teachers accompanying them, during peak production periods.
Foxconn admitted that its employment of children at the factory in Hengyang was illegal but defended its actions on the grounds it was offering the students a chance to improve their prospects.
The company claimed it provided students with “the opportunity to gain practical work experience and on-the-job training in a number of areas that will support their efforts to find employment following their graduation".
“While the impacted interns were paid the additional wages associated with these shifts, this is not acceptable and we have taken immediate steps to ensure it will not be repeated,” the company said.
The documents revealed that Foxconn pays its interns a basic wage of just £1.18 (Dh5.25) an hour to assemble Amazon’s Alexa devices.
“We are urgently investigating these allegations and addressing this with Foxconn at the most senior level,” a spokesman for Amazon said.
“We do not tolerate violations of our supplier code of conduct.
Amazon reported in January that it had sold more than 100 million Alexa devices.
