Apple probes alleged labour abuses at China plant
Apple on Friday said was investigating a labour rights group’s allegations that it found “a series of ethical and legal labour violations” at a US-owned plant making a cheaper model of the iPhone in China for domestic consumers.
New York-based China Labour Watch said its investigation revealed abuses including compulsory overtime of more than 100 hours per month at the factory owned by Jabil Circuit Inc in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi.
Workers were required to stand for more than 11 hours with only one 30-minute break, while pre-employment training was inadequate, and the company discriminated against job applicants who were over 35 years old or pregnant, the group said.
“Many of the violations raised in CLW’s report also contradict the codes of conduct of both Apple and Jabil Circuit,” it said.
Despite allowing outside investigations and compiling its own reports on labour conditions in recent years, Apple has “continually failed to compel supplier factories to conform to Apple’s code of conduct and local labour laws before giving these suppliers Apple production orders,” it said.
Apple said it had sent a team to Wuxi investigate the allegations as part of its commitment to “providing safe and fair working conditions throughout our supply chain.”
“We take any concerns about our suppliers very seriously, and our team of experts is on-site at Jabil Wuxi to look into the new claims about conditions there,” Apple said.
“Jabil has a proactive auditing programme of their own and they have an excellent track record of meeting Apple’s high standards,” it said.
Apple said it had conducted three audits of Jabil Wuxi in the past three years, with one audit this year finding that “some employees had worked more than six consecutive days without a day of rest.”
“Employees at Jabil are among the one million workers in Apple’s supply chain whose working hours we track each week and report on our website,” it said.
In July, CLW criticised labour practices at a Shanghai-based factory making the new model iPhones, which are expected to be marketed this month.
Apple and a major supplier, Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, last year agreed a series of changes to labour practices in Foxconn’s Chinese factories after an investigation found problems with working hours, pay and safety.
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