Asia, Foxconn | featured news

Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract electronics maker, has acknowledged hiring teenagers as young as 14 in a Chinese factory, in breach of national law, in a case that raises further questions over its student intern program.

Thousands of workers went on strike Friday at a Foxconn plant in China that makes Apple Inc's iPhone 5, paralyzing production of the smartphone, rights advocate China Labor Watch reported.

Working conditions at Foxconn's gargantuan Chinese factories that assemble Apple Inc's slick gadgets have barely improved despite pledges this year to halt labor violations, workers' rights activists and employees said on Thursday.

Workers at a Chinese factory owned by Foxconn, Apple Inc's main manufacturer, threatened to jump off the roof of a building in a protest over wages just a month after the two firms announced a landmark agreement on improving working conditions.

Foxconn, a leader in electronics manufacturing, said it will sharply curtail working hours and increase wages after a monitoring group found widespread problems in its labor practices.