Foxconn, which is a company well-known for producing apple products, have been reported infamously by lots of popular news media like BBC, CTV etc for behaving cruelly and inhumanely towards its workers. To me, this issue was really threatening since 13 workers suicided in a factory in 2010, which was quite a large number. It is even more shocking when I have once paid attention to the working hours of workers in Foxconn. According to WSJ.D news, Foxconn was criticized by news media because it did not reach the legal hour limit in China as reported in July 1st 2013, as the minimum working hours requirement in Foxconn was 36 hours more than the maximum legal hour limit.
In terms of ethical behavior, it is clear that Foxconn has severely violated the ethical code of conduct. Not only did Foxconn violated the law by exceeding the maximum legal hour limit, but its working hour requirements is also extremely potential of causing lots of psychological damage to the workers. To a further extent, Apple has also demonstrated its unethical behavior by buying products made from the hands of children of 13 years old that are filled with sweat and blood. However, at the same time, the principles of economics tend to remind all the people to focus on ‘self-interest’. As a result, this sounds quite inevitable to me considering that Apple need lots of wealth and manpower hired with least costs possible to compete with other big companies like Microsoft, Google etc. Even though the contradiction between ethics and self-interest can be huge, Apple and Foxconn may consider discussing about shrinking the working hours of Foxconn workers to avoid criticisms from other pressure groups.
Citations:
“Foxconn Admits Labour Violation.” BBC News. N.p., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-24486684>.
Luk, Lorraine. “Foxconn Still Exceeds Working Hours.” Digits RSS. N.p., 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/12/fla-says-foxconn-still-exceeds-working-hours/>.
Pomfret, James, and Chyen Yee Lee. “Foxconn Working Conditions Still Harsh In China, Say Activists.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 May 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/foxconn-working-conditions_n_1558415.html>.