Apple Admits to Occasional Excessive Work Hours

rev_media writes "After Apple's release of a report on the labor conditions in their Chinese factories, many took issue with the deliberately vague wording used in the statement. The BBC is now reporting that Apple has admitted to 'excessive' working hours in some locations, and they would be ensuring that a 'normal' 60-hour work week will be adhered to from now on." From that article: "'We found no instances of forced overtime and employees confirmed in interviews that they could decline overtime requests without penalty,' said Apple in a statement. The firm said there were 'overtime limit exceptions in unusual circumstances' and that it supported a healthy work-life balance. But it did not specify what the triggers for 'unusual circumstances' were and what upper limit it set on working hours. Mr Kuczkiewicz said Apple had not asked workers what they preferred - a decent wage or minimum wage and overtime."

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Famously, if you opened up the data fork of the System File in Mac OS 7.1 through 7.5 in a hex editor, you would find the string "Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!"

Who knew that was for real? :O

New Apple Slogan

[sickboyedd]

"You just work" I for one welcome our new Apple Overseers!

+60hr work/wk on apple products

[atarione]

it's like my worst nightmare

oh they meant building them

well that is almost as bad

Re:60 hours = normal

[Anonymous Coward]

IBM considers 60 hours a week half-time.

sleep!

[rajafarian]

I used to worh 3-4 months straight for my business.

Good God, Daengbo, what did you do to keep awake?

Re:Wow

[noidentity]

Haha, I just opened the 7.6.1 system's data fork (nothing interesting in 9.2.2) and found this (names comma-delimited to avoid Slashdot's restrictions):

1983-96 Apple Computer Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Mercenaries hit the factory and freed the prisoners.

On contract:
Wendy Chiou, Doug Clark, Mike Crawford, Michael Dautermann, Dave Evans, Nitin Ganatra, Darren Litzinger, Jim Luther, Dave Lyons, Jim Mensch, Alex Rangel, Steve Stephenson, John Yen

Freed, armed, and dangerous:
Eric3 Anderson, Clinton Bauder, Derrick Carty, Jeff Crawford, Cameron Esfahani, Ian Hendry, Eric Hewitt, Deric Horn, Jim Murphy, Craig Prouse, Mike Puckett, Jim Reekes, Steve Swenson, Harry Yee

Released before the raid:
Giovanni Agnoli, William Berry, Dave Falkenburg, Brian McGhie, Rob lunatic Moore, Anumele Raja, Alex Rosenberg, Eric Slosser, Randy theLen, Roshi Yousefi

Fugitives:
Sam Barone, Lars Borresen, Scott Boyd, Jaime Cummins, Hoon Im, Brad Post, Paul Wolf

Who dares wins.

Re:DORMITORIES = No sex life and no family life

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine yourself working 12 hours a day in a factory and sleeping in a dormitory in the same fucking factory! No intimacy, no sex life, no love, no children, no family life,...now dare tell me this is not a soulless slave life!!!

Except for the factory part, it kind of reminds me of the Army.

except for the factory and no children parts, it remind me of marriage.