If you are considering buying the latest apple product you might want to pause for thought.  It has been reported in the Observer this week that a recent investigation has found evidence of draconian rules and excessive overtime to meet western demand for iPhones and iPads.  To meet the western demands for the latest ‘must-have’ apple products half a million Chinese workers are paid about £0.65 per hour and regularly exceed the 60-hour week limit.

The research, carried out by two NGOs (the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom), has uncovered shocking claims of excessive working hours and oppressive workplace rules at two  plants in China. It has also revealed an “anti-suicide” pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.

The report accuses factory owner Foxconn of treating workings “inhumanely, like machines” and paints a picture of life for the 1/2 million workers at 2 major Chinese factories owned by Foxconn, which are responsible for the production of millions of Apple products every year.

Other claims include:

■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month.

■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

■ In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.

■ Crowded workers’ dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a “confession letter” after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: “It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again.”

■ In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to “treasure their lives”.

Last year Apple sold more than 15m iPads worldwide and has already sold close to five million this year.

Read full article here.