Wii U Manufacturer Admits to Hiring Illegal Underage Workers

[Timothy Chang]

Wii U Manufacturer Admits to Hiring Illegal Underage Workers

Nintendo will be investigating allegations that Foxconn employed underage students to bolster its workforce.

Foxconn, the world's largest maker of electronic components, is fairly notorious when it comes to worker relations. The latest from the electronics manufacturer reveals that the company had been using workers that were under the legal working age, allegedly to make up shortfalls in the workforce.

An internal investigation by Foxconn uncovered the teenage workers, who were under the legal working age of 16, in a manufacturing plant in Yantai, located in China's Shandong province. The teens were working in the plant as "student interns."

The company openly admitted the mistake: "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 their educational institutions."

Foxconn declined to comment on the actual number of teenage workers discovered, although an "unnamed Yantai government official" commented that 56 students would be brought back to schools.

On the other hand, Chinese labor rights activists claimed that the teens were sent to the factory by their schools, who in turn threatened to deny students subject credits and graduation diplomas if the students refused to work. They also accuse Foxconn for failing to check the IDs of students in its internship program, which makes up 2.7% of its workforce. The activists claimed that the Yantai plant is "currently testing" Nintendo's Wii U console.

China's official news agency, Xinhua, also alleges that Foxconn was employing underage labor in order to make up for a 19,000 employee deficit.

Nintendo has stated that it is in communication with Foxconn and investigating the matter further. "We require that all production partners, including Foxconn, comply with these Guidelines, which are based on relevant laws, international standards and guidelines. If we were to find that any of our production partners did not meet our guidelines, we would require them to modify their practices according to Nintendo's policy."

At the start of the year, Foxconn was investigated by Microsoft after 300 employees at an Xbox 360 manufacturing plant were Apple launched an inquiry soon afterwards [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115211-Microsoft-Investigates-Factory-Worker-Suicide-Threats] to look into the worker's poor working and living conditions, sending voluntary auditors through facilities in Shenzhen and Chengu.

Source: China Labor Watch [http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/17/14508874-foxconn-says-underage-workers-used-in-china-plant?lite]

Image: International Business Times

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[Erttheking]

Can't western governments ban companies from dealing with Foxconn? No, wait, that would mean putting human rights before profit, and that would be communism.

Bit of a strawman argument there.

OT: Well, that's...kinda fucked up

 

[lostlevel]

I think it is a bit deceptive to focus on Nintendo as other corporations such as: Acer, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Nvidia, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Vizio are just some of Foxconn's customers.

This seems somewhat reminiscent of when people found out where cheap clothes were made and it seemed to get better although chains like Primark in UK still exist.

But I am hopeful that things will improve as first Microsoft, then Apple and now Nintendo have launched inquiries. By how much and for how long that will help for is the tough question, as we all like our gadgets but we also prefer them cheap.

Also it'd be a hard to boycott this company given how many products their components turn up in if they don't change things.

 

[krazykidd]

Can't western governments ban companies from dealing with Foxconn? No, wait, that would mean putting human rights before profit, and that would be communism.

OT: This is pretty bad , especially forced by the school part. If they did it, out of their own free because they needed the money for their families FINE , but this is forced labor.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I think it is a bit deceptive to focus on Nintendo as other corporations such as: Acer, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Nvidia, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Vizio are just some of Foxconn's customers.

This seems somewhat reminiscent of when people found out where cheap clothes were made and it seemed to get better although chains like Primark in UK still exist.

But I am hopeful that things will improve as first Microsoft, then Apple and now Nintendo have launched inquiries. By how much and for how long that will help for is the tough question, as we all like our gadgets but we also prefer them cheap.

Also it'd be a hard to boycott this company given how many products their components turn up in if they don't change things.

Yeah, I thought everyone knew that most things were made by tiny Asian fingers.

 

[Rect Pola]

"return the interns in question to their educational institutions"? That sounds... awkward.

Man. I know they are pushing to make high end products meet OUR demands in price, but there's a point where its not worth it.

 

[Baresark]

Can't western governments ban companies from dealing with Foxconn? No, wait, that would mean putting human rights before profit, and that would be communism.

That is a common misconception. Not that the part where governments can ban products from other countries, but the part where someone would consider it beneficial to people in that other country to be unemployed and not make any money. In the words of Johann Norberg, the alternative to a bad job in a developing nation is not a good job, it's no job. I would also love to point out that his is probably a common thing in China. Not because China is full of horrible people exploiting other people, but because everyone wants to work and make money. I would say working at Foxconn is a big step up from selling your Kidney for enough money to buy an iPhone.

The only reason this story even rates is because of previous stories that have to do with Foxconn. The media cascade surrounding the 19 suicides (which isn't really a story from a statistical point of view) and the threat of suicide by 300 other employees (which is clearly aimed at the media attention the 19 suicides received) was ridiculous. It makes everyone all , "OMG, human rights and stuffs!"

Even in poor countries, people are first and foremost consumers. So, they need money as much as anyone. This whole story is layed out in a clearly debatable manner, I would like to point out. So far we don't know anything besides some slightly underage people were working in the factory where they were not supposed to be. The main difference between this place and the McDonald's I worked at when I was a teenager is the MoDonalds checked for working papers at the age of 14 and under. I know this was in place to "protect" me, but it's outright ridiculous that I should need papers from my school telling them it's ok that I work and make money.

OT: Wow Foxconn, as soon as you get passed one problem you run right into another. It's probably because you have unrealistic goals set on your managing staff, requiring them to then do stupid shit to get them done.

 

[Epona]

snip

Lets try it this way. Would you be willing to spend 1200+ for the WiiU?

No one would buy a WiiU at that price, therefore Nintendo would never charge that price.

 

[Xanthious]

Oh, man. Pay more for luxury, entertainment products, or force people to work in conditions that make industrial revolution-era workhouses look nice by comparison? It would almost be a hard choice, if it weren't for the fact that these people are non-white, thus worthless.

Trust me fella, nobody is forcing those people to work there. They can't line up fast enough to get jobs at places like Foxconn. Sure it's ungodly long hours, working conditions I wouldn't wish on anyone, and just an overall horrible work environment but ya know what? It sure as hell beats starving homeless on the streets.

I can promise you if these sweat shops magically disappeared the Chinese people would be a LOT worse off than they are now. The alternative to working at these places isn't a good job with a fair salary and reasonable hours. No, the alternative is fighting with hobos over who gets to lick the used and discarded ketchup packet.

At the end of the day it may seem like the civilized world is exploiting all these poor Chinese people for cheap electronics but the reality is that China is simply making the best of a bad situation. There really is no way, with the insane population they have that they can offer jobs like you find in first world countries.

China is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they suddenly start raising salaries and other such things the cost of the electronics will go up and if the cost of the electronics goes up companies will no longer have a reason to have their goods made in China at which point all those high salaries are for naught because the jobs will have been moved someplace else. China's best bet is to keep on as they are. At least then the millions of people being housed and fed in these Chinese shops aren't put out on the streets.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Various snips

A) Let's not pretend that Nintendo makes any money on console sales. They sell them at a loss as an investment in future game sales, which they make a handsome profit on, to put it mildly

B) When a company puts nets around it's building because people are jumping off the roof on mass, the bad job/no job argument kinda goes out the window (no pun intended)

 

[Xanthious]

So why can't people in developing nations just be have good jobs? Oh right, because you can get away with it as long as it's not OUR people you're mistreating. So in the end it all comes back to profit: Human rights don't matter, because they should be grateful to be working at all.

No, what you are claiming isn't the case. Let's assume China did magically and drastically improve the jobs though and raised salaries and cut hours. The first thing that would happen is the cost of production would skyrocket. That means the cost to the consumer would skyrocket as well. Either that, or these companies would have to find another factory to produce their products.

The first option of increasing prices would likely put these companies out of business. I don't know about you but I don't think I'd buy a 10,000 dollar TV, a 1500 dollar PS3 and a 2000 dollar cell phone. Very few people would. As a result the company would have to close up shop and all those jobs with fair wages and reasonable hours would be lost leaving millions on the street.

The other alternative is that these companies would find a new manufacturer. Well in this scenario, again, all the good jobs with fair wages and reasonable hours would be lost as production moved to a different country.

It's not out of sheer greed that companies use places like Foxconn. It has a lot to do with the fact the consuming public only has so much money and they wouldn't be able to stay in business selling their products at a price required to provide people in developing countries with good jobs and reasonable wages as their products simply wouldn't sell because all but the incredibly wealthy would be unable to afford them.

While I don't argue the jobs at places like Foxconn are horrible they are also the best that can be done given the circumstances. It's unfortunate to be sure but it would be even more unfortunate to have millions of Chinese people jobless, homeless, and starving.

 

[-Dragmire-]

This sounds like an evil ploy called 'Bring Your Kid To Work Day!'.

 

[J Tyran]

Foxconn stories are awesome, they are great for people with agendas who want to sensationalize something. Foxconn make stuff for a huge array of companies, none of the news stories ever reflect that though journalists and bloggers start with whatever company they have an agenda with or think makes the story relevant to their site.

Want to bash Apple? Start your story with "Apple factory workers commit suicide!"
How about Microsoft? Start your story with "Xbox factory workers forced to work 18 hour shifts!"
Then there is good old Nintendo, "Wii U Manufacturer Admits to Hiring Illegal Underage Workers!"

Foxconn is an ongoing atrocity however, western companies don't put much pressure on them to try and increase standards. They like the cheap manufacturing costs to much.

 

[Sylveria]

The Wii-U: Made by children, for children.

 

[Negatempest]

So, people are going to stop buying iphones right? pfft. HAhahaha, not likely.