At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China.

Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. “In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment,” Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.

Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou.A spokesman for Wintek said that “almost all” of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital.

Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly.Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apples biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone.Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factorys security staff had beaten him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building.

Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts.It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an “inhumane and militant” management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconns management were not available for comment.In its report,

Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apples rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week.The technology companys own guidelines are already in breach of Chinas widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers.

via Apple admits using child labour – Telegraph.