Foxconn, Apple’s largest supply chain, is facing scrutiny for admitting that they hiring underaged employees in one of their factories.  The advocacy group China Labor Watch was the first to report of the underaged employment, and the company confirmed, stating that those were student interns aged 14-16 year olds, and that they will be terminated immediately.

“Any Foxconn employee found, through our investigation, to be responsible for these violations will have their employment immediately terminated,” Foxconn said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg.  “We recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action.”

The China Labor Watch stated that the schools who sent the interns should be held responsible, but Foxconn should have double-checked the age of the interns before hiring them.

Foxconn is often in the middle of scandals because of unfit working conditions, suicides, riots and strikes.  Last month, Foxconn had to shut down production because of an employee brawl which was later determined as being related to the clash between quality and production teams over the manufacturing of faulty iPhone 5 cases.

Earlier this year, Apple gave in to public pressure and launched their own formal investigation of the working conditions in their factories.  Some Foxconn employees reported of experiencing horrible work conditions, not getting paid enough, and suffering from exhaustion for being overworked without days off.

Foxconn is now getting berated for harassing the family of Zhang Tingzhen, an employee which has half of his brains removed after being electrocuted in a plant in southern China about a year ago.  Foxconn has been sending text messages to his family demanding that they remove Zhang from the hospital and if they do not comply, they will cut off his treatment funding.

Foxconn admitted sending the text messages, stating that it is justified under Chinese labor laws as Zhang needs to submit himself for a disability assessment in Huizhou, where he was first hired by Foxconn.  It’s some 70 kilometres from the Shenzhen hospital, where he is still staying and being observed by doctors.  Foxconn promises that they would return Zhang to the hospital after the assessment if needed, but his doctors say that he is still in danger of brain hemorrhaging.

“China now has laws specifying the types of compensation that are due to workers. But in many serious industrial accidents, companies still put workers or their families through a lot of suffering just to get what is due to them,” said Choi Suet-wah of the Chinese Working Women Network in Hong Kong.

“They are robbed of their dignity,” said Choi, who has extensive experience working with migrant workers in China.