School students manufacturing PS4 consoles in China

Last Updated: October 11, 2013

Foxconn-Logo

It looks like IT engineering students have been forced to help manufacture Playstation 4 consoles at a Foxconn factory in China.

Chinese media initially picked up on the story and said that students from the Xi’an Institute of Technology were being “forced” to help make the consoles to earn credits for their course, and if they didn’t get the credits, they might not graduate.

It’s officially called an internship by the school, however it appears that what they were doing at Foxconn bore no relevance to their studies and in addition, there were even reports of finance students being asked to put together PS4 consoles!

Foxconn has, at least, given their version of events, as follows:

In the case of recent allegations regarding the internship program at our Yantai campus, we have conducted an internal investigation and have determined that there have been a few instances where our policies pertaining to overtime and night shift work were not enforced.

Immediate actions have been taken to bring that campus into full compliance with our code and policies. These actions include reinforcing the policies of no overtime and no night shifts for student interns, even though such work is voluntary, and reminding all interns of their rights to terminate their participation in the program at any time

Foxconn just can’t shake these labor “mishaps” can they? Makes you wonder exactly what must go on versus what is reported…