Reports out of China suggest that the hotly anticipated next-generation PlayStation 4 video game console has been manufactured by "thousands" of university students forced into labor at electronics maker Foxconn.
Foxconn manufacturers many of the tech gadgets we hold so dear, but it seems like students of a nearby university have had their impending diplomas threatened over Foxconn's need to supply Sony with as many boxes of circuits for this holiday consumer season.
I don't want to editorialize too much, but this is some fucked-up shit.
Students have said that they were told classes wouldn't begin until after the manufacturing "internship" was completed or that they wouldn't be able to graduate if they didn't comply.
"It's like being a robot," said one student who also related that the student work schedule lasted eleven hours or more depending on overtime requirements. Foxconn has issued a reply to Quartz about the company's policies for working students:
Immediate actions have been taken to bring [XIT University] into full compliance with our code and policies…. 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.
It's undeniable that the way corporations have taken to treating human life lately is nothing short of disgusting. Nice of Foxconn to pass the buck to the university though, right? What's the high water mark for corruption and money exchanging hands between tech giants, Foxconn, and the manufacturer's surrounding infrastructure that even a place for learning and education is sending students over for labor?
Thanks to tipster, elmoreoocyte.
