Microsoft is getting into trouble after its Chinese partner has been accused of running a sweatshop.

According to the Seattle Pi, thousands of Chinese teens and young adults work 15 hours a day at 65 cents per hour, prohibited from talking or listening to music, in abysmal conditions at the KYE Systems factory. KYE assembles Microsoft hardware that is exported to the United States, Europe and Japan.

The conditions at the KYE plant have been exposed by the  National Labor Committee. It is based on three years of incognito interviews and photography inside the infamous Dongguan, China plant. Microsoft accounts for about 30 percent of the factory's work, the NLC said. One worker said that life at the plant was similar to a prison where people live only to work. (Communism, you're doing it wrong. sub.ed.)

The research apparently has spooked Microsoft which said that it is taking the claims seriously and has "commenced an investigation." Odd that it never conducted an investigation before the conditions were made public. Apple has faced similar troubles with its manufacturing partners in China.  They have a habit of using child labour and have some of their staff lob themselves off buildings rather than go to work.