Apple investigates ‘sweat shop’ factories following suicide threat

A team of inspectors from the not-for-profit organisation, which is headquartered in Washington DC, started inspections this morning at the Foxconn City plant in Shenzen.

Apple’s problems with Taiwanese company Foxconn, which manufactures almost all of its devices, date back as far as 2010 when a string of workers committed suicide at a plant in Longhua, which employed between 300,000 and 400,000 workers.

However the troubles have continued and last month 150 Foxconn employees threatened to leap from the top of a three-floor plant in Wuhan amid allegations they were paid piecemeal and were expected to work in a pressured environment without any training.

The New York Times claimed in an investigation last month that Apple had failed to live up to its promises to improve working practices at factories in the Far East.