Foxconn, a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturing company, has officially admitted that it hired under-aged children workers illegally for its factory in China.

According to Foxconn’s statement released on October 16, its factory in Shantung area, China, hired children aged from 14 to 16, and they worked there for three weeks. It was the first time that the giant manufacturing company admitted that they hired children. The New York Times and several Chinese media have reported that Foxconn might hire children to reduce its labor cost, but the manufacturing company has denied or kept silent about it.

Foxconn said through its statement, “We are going to take a responsibility of breaching the Chinese labor laws and company’s internal regulations by hiring underage workers, and we already sent all children back to their school.” However, when it comes to the question whether other factories of Foxconn hired under-aged children or not, Foxconn did not give any specific answer, and it also did not show how many children were hired illegally and which schools were involved.

Foxconn’s statement was quite shocking for people worldwide because the electronics manufacturing company was involved in controversies related to how it manages employees in China early of this year, making Apple hire the Fair Labor Association to conduct an audit of working conditions at Foxconn factories.

Even though Foxconn admitted its wrongdoing, strong doubts about whether other factories in Jiangsu and Huaian areas in China hired under-aged children illegally or not have been raised. According to the US-based non-governmental organization China Labor Watch (CLW), Foxconn’s Shantung factory hired about 2,000 under-aged students in September, and they were forced to work all night every day. CLW said even some of children were not allowed to take a break even though they were sick.

The Korean daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported that the number of children workers in China has been decreased since 1980s, but it is estimated that about three million children are still forced to work at restaurants or factories in rural areas or small cities in China.

The newspaper also pointed out that the lack of labor forces in southern China is one of the main reasons why children are forced to work these days. The living expenses of this area have been soared lately, and this makes people in other parts of China not willing to move to this area, causing the lack of labor forces.

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According to the Chinese zodiac, 2012 will be the year of the dragon and though the new year has only just begun, it has already come in roaring, putting the mayor of Wuhan, China to the test. According to CBSSeattle.com, he spent hours atop the roof of a Foxconn company building negotiating with desperate protesters to back away from the ledge.

Foxconn is a major supplier to such technology giants as Microsoft and Apple, and is known for making the video gaming system Xbox. A disagreement over worker compensation caused a couple hundred employees to climb one of the company’s six-story buildings and threaten mass suicide.

Workers were under the impression that if they were to quit instead of being moved to a different campus, they would be paid a month’s worth of compensation for every year they had worked at the company. Foxconn did not hold up to its end of the bargain, sparking the rooftop protest. In its defense, Foxconn said in a statement that it did not agree to any severance with all of its employees.

An anonymous worker told New York Times correspondent, David Barboza, that working conditions at the campus the employees were being transferred to were much harsher than current conditions. In response, Foxconn released a statement saying that the dispute was over the transfer and staffing policies, not working conditions.

This is not the first time suicide has been used to bring attention to Foxconn employee grievances. A suicide incident in 2010 caused Foxconn to raise its employees pay and bring in various emotional health services, such as psychiatrists. According to Geoffrey Crotell, who spoke with the Bloomberg news network, threatening suicide is a common tactic used by local workers to draw attention to their difficulties. Some companies have even resorted to placing safety nets around their buildings to deter the threat of suicide.

No suicides took place by the end of the protest, but 45 workers have resigned; the rest of the protesters returned to work. It is unknown whether those 45 that resigned were compensated. One individual did step forward and said that he was able to get 30,000 yuan in compensation (about $4,500).

Wang, an engineer at Foxconn, made it clear that he only received this amount after invoking the help of his supervisor. The exact positions of the other protesters are unknown, but the level of their position may have an effect on any compensation they may receive. Length of employment may also play a role; it is unknown how long Wang had been at the company before he resigned.

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