Apple Cracking Down On Overseas Suppliers, Audits Find Underage Workers

With a recent incident involving protesting workers at Xbox component supplier Foxconn’s factory in Shanghai, there is no better time for Apple to tighten its policies on protecting its workers abroad. 

Foxconn has come under scrutiny related to working conditions as one of Apple’s biggest partners, suppliers, and assemblers as well.

In order to improve their auditing process of overseas suppliers, Apple today announced that they would be allowing the Fair Labor Association to access their supplier’s factories in order to inspect and keep an eye on working conditions. The FLA will publish independent reports of its findings on its own website. Apple is the first technology company the FLA has accepted for membership.

The FLA is a non-profit that, according to their own web-site, is ‘dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories worldwide.’ It is comprised of over 32 companies, 200 Universities, and has ‘impacted’ a reported 4,651,658 workers since 2010.

Joining the FLA is a move that certainly creates the appearance that Apple is doing everything they can for the well-being of their workers at places like Foxconn and throughout their over 156 other suppliers.

Said Auret van Heerden, FLA’s President and CEO:

“We found that Apple takes supplier responsibility seriously and we look forward to their participation in the Fair Labor Association…We welcome Apple’s commitment to greater transparency and independent oversight, and we hope its participation will set a new standard for the electronics industry.”

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Operations Jeff Williams released this satement in the FLA’s press release:

“We’re extremely proud to be the first technology company admitted to the FLA. Last year we performed more than 200 audits at our supplier’s facilities around the world. With the benefit of the FLA’s experience and expertise, we will continue to drive improvements for workers and provide even greater transparency into our supply chain.”

While we can’t speak to exactly what is happening at Foxconn, who has a long history with workers protesting and worse, Apple published its 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report today that gives us a glimpse into what goes on inside the company’s supply chain.

As part of the regular audits that Apple performs at its supplier’s facilities abroad, Apple found 42 facilities were late when paying wages, 67 held payments to punish bad behavior, and 108 facilities didn’t pay the overtime rates required by local laws. Apple’s audits even found 6 active cases of underage labor in 5 different facilities and are now requiring those facilities “support the young workers’ return to school and to improve its management systems.”

The audits found that approximately 50 percent of employees at 93 facilities have worked over the 60 hour maximum workweek recommended by Apple’s Code of Conduct. Here is an excerpt from the several page long report:

93 facilities had records that indicated more than 50 percent of their workers exceeded weekly working hour limits of 60 in at least 1 week out of the 12 sample period. At 90 facilities, more than half of the records we reviewed indicated that workers had worked more than 6 consecutive days at least once per month, and 37 facilities lacked an adequate working day control system to ensure that workers took at least 1 day off in every 7 days.

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