Forced Student Labor in Mass-Producing the PS4?

According to Chinese press, Foxconn is rumored to use student labor again in producing high-demand products in their factory. Recently, Foxconn was in hot water using student labor producing the iPhone 5 during its peak demand.

Foxconn produces a bulk of what we use on a daily basis  which include iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, PlayStation 3, and Wii U.

Major customers of Foxconn include or have included:

The demand for the PS4 is at an all-time high. I’ve tried pre-ordering from a lot of places here in South-East Asia and they’re charging a lot more than the MSRP of $399. It’s sad that the practice of this Chinese company is going rampant, taking interns from a certain university and getting free labor. The consequences are large if they disagree towards the “internship” costing them 6 credit units from the semester. And the sad part is, the whole “internship” program itself is compulsory for the students.

Officially, the program is considered an “internship” by the University and Foxconn and is promoted by the school. When they got to Foxconn, their “internship” included the common grunt work of a factory worker. Like putting together parts for electronic devices, shipping, and distribution of products inside the facility. With students who are majoring in finance, accounting and computer science, it is very odd that this “internship” has little to no relationship at all to their assigned jobs/tasks. Much worse is that they’re not being paid a single cent, unlike the regular workers.

Pity, because I see the sadness in their faces. They look tired and sad from working in this company. I don’t know what the practices inside the company are, but the consensus of people “outside looking in” is pretty much negative.

Some news has been swept under the rug, and let me remind you about something. This is the same company that has had suicide scandals and underage labor under their belts. Maybe it’s time for some governing body to guide this company into a more humane environment as a workplace.