Claims that Apple is running Dickensian sweat shops to make its Ipods have been disputed.

The Mail on Sunday reported that Apple's contractor in China, Foxconn (better known for its motherboards), pays its 200,000 workers in the Longhua plant just $50 a month to make Ipods.

It claimed that people live in plant dormitories housing 100 people, and outside visitors are forbidden. One plant is staffed by women and another is secured by members of the Chinese police.

But Wired quotes IT experts, none of whom have visited the plants mentioned by the Mail on Sunday, who dispute these claims.

Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the pro-globalisation International Institute for Economics, said Hon Hai, which has 100,000 workers, has an ‘excellent reputation’.

Plants run by big global companies such as Hon Hai are very different from smaller, Chinese outfits. International giants usually enforce the same work practices in China as they do in other parts of Asia, Europe or the US, according to Lardy.

However, Lardy admitted he had no specific knowledge of Hon Hai's facilities, but said other plants he'd visited in China run by its competitors were to US and European standards.

Others quoted by Wired said that while Chinese IT factories might look fine, they fall short when it comes to worker treatment.

Apple has made no statement about the claims.

This article first appeared on the Inquirer