Apple’s Foxconn interns paid better than Lib Dem interns
SO there was this great big campaign, with petitions and plays and online sign ups and the usual ignorant outrage displayed on Twitter and Facebook about how appalling the working conditions and pay were at Foxconn. You know, the giant seris of factories in China that make everything for Apple and HP and Microsoft and all.
We’ve now got the results from an in depth investigation into those working conditions and pay.
The general finding is that poor people work long hours for not much money. Well, yes, that’s true, that’s what being poor means, working long hours for not much money. Shrug, that’s what poor people in poor countires do, that’s why we describe them as poor and that’s why we’d like them to carry on having an industrial revolution so they can become rich like us.
In fact, the only interesting thing I can see in the report at all is about interns:
Foxconn interns fall through the cracks.
Though Foxconn does provide interns with some forms of health insurance, due to Chinese labor laws, interns “are not defined as employees and legally, no employment relationship exists between the factory and the interns.”The FLA adds, “This means that the general protections of the labor law do not apply to interns, including the social security benefits that normal workers receive. While regulations applying to interns exist in Guangdong Province and the Ministry of Education has issued policy regarding interns, their employment status remains vague and represents a major risk.”
Interns do get paid money even if they don’t get social security benefits. Which means that interns at Foxconn get a better deal than interns working for the Liberal Democrats party in London, where they don’t even get wages: not even Chinese level wages.
I will admit to finding it very hard to get worked up about how appallingly these Chinese workers are treated.
Posted: 30th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Money, Politicians, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
