Apple's 12th Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, which details the working conditions at its various supplier facilities, has been released today. At first glance, it appears violations are on the rise, but there is also a simple explanation.
Apple today said its eleventh Supplier Responsibility report is now available, highlighting how its supply chain companies are treating workers and what they're doing to improve working conditions at their facilities. In 2016, Apple trained more than 2.4 million workers on their rights. Since 2008, over two million people have participated in its Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program.
The company audited 705 suppliers last year, saying that compliance with 60-hour maximum work week for employees has reached 98 percent, the highest ever.
Apple has informed its supply chain partners that it will no longer tolerate the charging of recruitment fees to new hires, the company said in its annual Supplier Responsibility report on Wednesday. The practice is common in countries like China, where labor is in short supply, and manufacturers use third-party brokers to help staff their factories.
“It is in essence bonded servitude,” Apple's Senior Vice President of Operations Jeff Williams tells Bloomberg, describing a scenario in which a factory new-hire is forced to take on a huge debt before they even begin work. "That fee needs to be paid by the supplier and Apple ultimately bears that fee when we pay the supplier and we’re OK doing that."
Pegatron, the Apple supplier at the center of a blistering BBC report last week, said in a statement Monday it will inspect all the negative claims carried in the report and will start implementing improvements to ensure the problems are solved.
The BBC launched an investigation into a Pegatron plant that Apple uses to manufacturer its products in China, and found poor treatment of workers, after Apple has stated several times that it's cleaned up its act.
The British media giant found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories. It even recorded workers falling asleep on the production line after a 12-hour shift.
An Apple supplier has once gain come under scrutiny for labor violations. Both Green America and China Labor Watch are reporting that Catcher, who is responsible for making iPad and MacBook casings for the company, is endangering and exploiting its workers.
At its factory in Suqian, China, Catcher is accused of failing to provide adequate protective equipment for employees handling toxic materials, and various other safety violations. The manufacturer is also charged with forcing overtime: 10+ hours per day, 6 days a week.
Apple is once again being criticized for the behavior of one of its Asian supply chain partners. The Fair Labor Association (or FLA) has released a new report, auditing two factories operated by the company's partner Quanta, and it found quite a bit of non-compliance at both facilities.
The issues detailed in the report range from inappropriate recruitment fees, to extended overtime. In fact, the FLA found that 62% of Quanta employees at its Changshu plant failed to receive mandatory rest days at least once over a three-month period during the fourth quarter of 2012...
Apple's Senior Vice President of Operations, Jeff Williams, has issued an internal memo to Apple employees following the company's newly published 2014 Supplier Responsibility Report. Williams was promoted to the position as Tim Cook's long-time right hand man. Before being named CEO, Tim Cook used to run Apple's vast network of suppliers and manufacturer for years.
This is the first time Williams penned an internal memo to troops regarding Apple's environmental strides. The full contents of the memo can be read after the break...
Apple this morning published its annual Supplier Responsibility Report to its website. The report details the company's Supplier Code of Conduct and the lengths it has gone through in the past year to ensure its suppliers and their materials are on the up-and-up.
One of the more notable items from the report is that Apple says that all active, identified tantalum smelters in its supply chain were validated as conflict-free by third-party auditors. This means that all of Apple's suppliers are using only verified tantalum sources...
Following the death of a 15 year-old factory worker, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pegatron is using facial recognition technology to screen applicants for its iPhone plant. Pegatron manufactures the iPhone 5c and other products for Apple.
The company is using the tech to match real faces with those on government-issued IDs. This form of authentication helps to weed out those with borrowed or forged IDs, which is believed to be how the 15 year-old was able to get past initial screening...
New York-based China Labor Watch has accused Apple manufacturing partner Pegatron of 'serious' labor violations this morning. In a new report out today, the organization claims the device-maker is committing of 86 labor rights violations in three of its factories.
Among the infractions listed in the filing are the employment of underage workers, insufficient employee wages, and poor working conditions. In all, the watchdog group says that it found Pegatron to be guilty of 36 legal infringements and 50 ethical infringements...
As part of its never-ending efforts to improve working conditions at overseas plants where its devices are being assembled, Apple has enlisted help of eight professors from top U.S. universities to establish an academic advisory board for its Supplier Responsibility program.
The academics will provide guidance and advice to improve working conditions within Apple's worldwide supply chain and help provide "safe and ethical working conditions wherever its products are made"...