As we wait for Apple to take the wraps off the iPhone 5, one Chinese journalist has come forward with his story about going undercover at a Foxconn factory to assemble Cupertino's latest handset.
According to CNET, the Shanghai Evening Post has published a detailed peek inside Foxconn's Tai Yuan factory, where an undercover reporter spent 10 days putting together iPhone 5 back plates during the night shift.
Prior to being put on the assembly line, the journalist spent seven days going through an "intensive" orientation before being put to work on the midnight to 6 a.m. night shift.
The reporter's job entailed marking the iPhone 5 backplate with an oil-based paint pen in four different spots - as fast as humanly possible.
'Who wants to rest early at 5 a.m.?!'
"By my own calculations, I have to mark five iPhone plates every minute, at least," an English translation posted to MIC Gadget notes. "For every 10 hours, I have to accomplish 3,000 iPhone 5 back plates."
The journalist's shift was devoid of a single break, and the Foxconn supervisor reportedly pushed his team to work longer and harder.
"The supervisor shout out loud in front of us: 'Who wants to rest early at 5 a.m.!? We are all here to earn money! Let's work harder!'" the report reveals.
"I was thinking who on earth wants to work two extra hours overtime for only mere 27 yuan (USD$4)?!"
Judging from the conditions noted by the unnamed journalist, it seems Foxconn may still have some work ahead of it following the Fair Labor Association investigations earlier this year.
