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Apple-Foxconn Investigation Finds 'Serious' Violations Of Chinese Labor Laws

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Life may be about to get better for the workers who put together your iPhone. Your next gadget, however, might cost you more.

An investigation into working conditions at three Chinese factories run by Foxconn Technology Group revealed "serious" violations of Chinese labor laws, according to a report posted Thursday by the Fair Labor Association.

The FLA report found that during peak production periods workers toiled more than 60 hours a week, and nearly half of employees reported working more than 11 days without a day off, among other violations.

In response, Foxconn pledged to hire thousands of new workers, improve worker representation on health and safety committees, and overhaul its overtime compensation system, the FLA reports.

Such changes could increase the costs for a wide range of consumer electronics assembled at Foxconn, FLA President Aureet van Heerden acknowledged in an interview Thursday.

"We are asking factories to make significant investment,"  van Heerden said in an interview with ABC News that will air Thursday evening. "We all have to be willing to share that cost," he added.

The news comes as Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook is in China, where he reportedly toured a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhoufollowing a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang Tuesday.

State-run news agency Xinhua reported that Keqiang called on multinational companies to "pay more attention to caring for workers."

Foxconn manufactures products for a wide range of consumer electronics companies, including Acer, Amazon, Cisco,DellHewlett-Packard, Nintendo, Nokia, and Sony.

Apple and Foxconn invited the FLA into the factories where Apple’s products are built after Apple became the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association January 13.

Complaints about pay, safety, pain, food

The FLA says its assessors spent more than 3,000 hours inside Foxconn factories in Guanlan, Longhua, and Chengdu; interviewed ‘hundreds’ of workers; and surveyed 35,500 workers about conditions inside the factories.

Sixty-four percent of workers reported their compensation was not enough to cover their basic needs, 43.3% had "experienced or witnessed" accidents, 64.9% of workers said they had experienced pain after a full day of work, and 45.4% "completely" disagreed that Foxconn's canteens serve good food.

Most of the problems fell into four broad areas: working hours, health and safety, industrial relations, and compensation.

The FLA found that during peak production the average number of hours worked per week exceeded the FLA’s code and Chinese legal limits.

Investigators also found “a considerable number of workers felt generally insecure regarding their health and safety.”

Workers were “largely alienated,” from key safety and health committees and had “little confidence” that health and safety issues were being managed well, according to the FLA.

Fourteen percent of workers did not get fair compensation for unscheduled overtime, with unscheduled overtime only paid in 30-minute increments, according to the FLA.

Changes promised

To address these problems, Foxconn has agreed to make sweeping changes to the way it compensates employees and allows them to organize. Foxconn has agreed to achieve “full legal compliance” by July 1, the FLA reports.

The biggest change: to reduce the number of hours per worker “tens of thousands” of new workers will be needed.

Foxconn will also change its procedures so that “all accidents that result in injury will be recorded and addressed.”

The company also promised to “ensure elections of worker representatives without management interference,” and “enhance workers’ participation in committees and other union structures.”

The Fair Labor Association's full report can be found here.