Electronics, 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.

A reporter from the Shanghai Evening Post says he worked undercover at Foxconn Tai Yuan factory for ten days... He depicts run down facilities, grueling hours, tedious jobs, and disgusting living quarters.

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.

Contract handset maker Foxconn International its loss in this year's first half to widen significantly from a year earlier as demand from major customers like Nokia weakened further in the period.

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.