Amazon News: Chinese Children Forced To Work Overtime To Make Amazon Echo Devices, Labor Group Alleges

A report by human rights group China Labor Watch (CLW) suggests that Amazon Echo devices made by Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn involve teenagers in China working 10 hours a day to make the items.

The group says the Foxconn factory in Henyeng, China, making the devices has hired 1,581 interns from vocational schools at low pay. By hiring underage interns, the factory can keep down labor costs. The interns are frequently pressured to work at night and sometimes do not receive any days off, in violation of labor regulations.

The interns are also sometimes verbally abused or attacked by teachers at the facility and are often forced to do the same repetitive motions the entire day.

The reports allege that Amazon may have already known about Foxconn's illegal uses of student workers.

"We are urgently investigating these allegations and addressing this with Foxconn at the most senior level," Amazon said, adding that the company does not tolerate violations of its supplier code of conduct.

Foxconn has been under scrutiny before, as there were numerous suicides at Foxconn facilities in China from 2010 to 2011 due to low pay and poor working conditions. Many of the workers were involved in manufacturing products that are sold by Apple or Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The Amazon Echo devices made at the Henyeng facility incorporate Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, which allows users to find out the weather, play music, set alarms and other functions just with the use of one's voice.

China Labor Watch was founded in 2000 in New York, but also has an office in Shenzhen, China, to monitor factories and provide an advisory hotline to workers there. According to its website, CLW "increases transparency of supply chains and factory labor conditions, advocates for workers' rights, and supports the Chinese labor movement."