We’ve written before about the harsh treatment of Chinese workers and the wave of suicides that occurred last May at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, southern China. Yet despite the clear correlation between these tragic deaths and the work environment at Foxconn, it seems that little has been done to improve the working conditions for the thousands of employees who assemble Apple products at the company’s facilities. As the Guardian reports:

Interviews with mainly migrant employees and managers have laid bare the dark side of those profits: a Dickensian world of work that would be considered shocking in the west.

Many workers interviewed claimed that they were regularly required to work far in excess of the 36 hours of overtime per month that Chinese law – and therefore international labour law – permits…One worker produced a payslip showing 98 hours of extra time in a single month – nearly three times the legal maximum and in breach of Apple's own code of conduct. The rule that employees should have one day off in seven is often flouted, some claimed.

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