Apple terminates contract with supplier after audit finds underage labor violations
In Apple's seventh Supplier Responsibility Report released late Thursday, it was revealed that the company no longer does business with a Chinese component supplier due to that firm's use of underage workers.
Worker prepares iPhone for final assembly. | Source: Apple Supplier Responsibility Report
According to the 37-page report, an audit of Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics in January 2012 found the supplier responsible for 74 underage labor violations, prompting Apple to end its relationship with the circuit board manufacturer.
Apple's code of labor states that child labor is strictly restricted: "The minimum age for employment or work is 15 years of age, the minimum age for employment in that country, or the age for completing compulsory education in thatcountry, whichever is higher."
For the 2013 report, Apple conducted 393 audits across its supply chain, a 72 percent increase from the year before. In all, audits were conducted in 14 countries covering 1.5 million workers at manufacturing facilities and non-production facilities like call centers and warehouses. The company's audits were broken down into five distinct categories: labor and human rights, health and safety; environment; ethics; and management systems.
Overall practices compliance for labor and human rights, which covers concerns like anti-discrimination practices and wages, was at 77 percent while management systems compliance stood at 73 percent. Of note was a high level of adherence to working hour limits, which is capped at a maximum 60-hour work week with at least one day of rest per seven days of work. As for wages, the company required eight facilities to pay back excess foreign contract worker fees worth $6.4 million after they were found to be using bonded labor.
Health and safety checks practices and management systems were similar to the above category with 76 percent and 70 percent compliance, respectively. No core violations were found.
Environmental issues have traditionally been a problem for Apple in China, especially concerning the use of hazardous substances pollution. For 2012, overall compliance and management systems compliance was found to be 78 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Besides one supplier being put on probation for dumping a hazardous waste cutting oil into the restroom receptacle, no egregious violations were found.
Ethics was the highest scoring category with practices and management systems compliance at 97 percent and 90 percent, respectively. Metrics measured included business integrity, protection of whistle-blowers and protection of intellectual property. No significant actions were taken, but four facilities gave Apple's audit team falsified payroll and attendance records. These facilities ultimately furnished the correct records and were put on probation.
Management systems was the poorest scoring of the five categories with respective practices and systems compliance at 69 percent and 68 percent, though no core violations or remedial actions were reported. The audit found 158 facilities had no procedures in place for auditing their own suppliers or did not perform adequate reports, 154 facilites did not conduct internal audits and 138 facilites failed to conduct a management review.
Apple has been extremely proactive in ensuring its supply chain is up to international labor standards after the company's 2011 Progress Report found underage labor violations at a partner manufacturer. On top of its self-auditing practices, Apple in 2012 became the first tech company to join the Fair Labor Association.
Worker prepares iPhone for final assembly. | Source: Apple Supplier Responsibility Report
According to the 37-page report, an audit of Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics in January 2012 found the supplier responsible for 74 underage labor violations, prompting Apple to end its relationship with the circuit board manufacturer.
Apple's code of labor states that child labor is strictly restricted: "The minimum age for employment or work is 15 years of age, the minimum age for employment in that country, or the age for completing compulsory education in thatcountry, whichever is higher."
For the 2013 report, Apple conducted 393 audits across its supply chain, a 72 percent increase from the year before. In all, audits were conducted in 14 countries covering 1.5 million workers at manufacturing facilities and non-production facilities like call centers and warehouses. The company's audits were broken down into five distinct categories: labor and human rights, health and safety; environment; ethics; and management systems.
Overall practices compliance for labor and human rights, which covers concerns like anti-discrimination practices and wages, was at 77 percent while management systems compliance stood at 73 percent. Of note was a high level of adherence to working hour limits, which is capped at a maximum 60-hour work week with at least one day of rest per seven days of work. As for wages, the company required eight facilities to pay back excess foreign contract worker fees worth $6.4 million after they were found to be using bonded labor.
Health and safety checks practices and management systems were similar to the above category with 76 percent and 70 percent compliance, respectively. No core violations were found.
Environmental issues have traditionally been a problem for Apple in China, especially concerning the use of hazardous substances pollution. For 2012, overall compliance and management systems compliance was found to be 78 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Besides one supplier being put on probation for dumping a hazardous waste cutting oil into the restroom receptacle, no egregious violations were found.
Ethics was the highest scoring category with practices and management systems compliance at 97 percent and 90 percent, respectively. Metrics measured included business integrity, protection of whistle-blowers and protection of intellectual property. No significant actions were taken, but four facilities gave Apple's audit team falsified payroll and attendance records. These facilities ultimately furnished the correct records and were put on probation.
Management systems was the poorest scoring of the five categories with respective practices and systems compliance at 69 percent and 68 percent, though no core violations or remedial actions were reported. The audit found 158 facilities had no procedures in place for auditing their own suppliers or did not perform adequate reports, 154 facilites did not conduct internal audits and 138 facilites failed to conduct a management review.
Apple has been extremely proactive in ensuring its supply chain is up to international labor standards after the company's 2011 Progress Report found underage labor violations at a partner manufacturer. On top of its self-auditing practices, Apple in 2012 became the first tech company to join the Fair Labor Association.
Comments
The very fact that Apple ever at any point had anything to do with this company and their child labor makes Apple evil¡
Meanwhile, at Samsung…
I wouldn't be surprised if there is a headline along the lines of...
Apple Caught Using Child Labor Attempts To Save Face By Distancing Themselves From Supplier
I'm sure no parents, all over the world, want their kids to work. The fact that these were means they must be from a very poor family who had no other choice. So I hope the loss of Apple's business doesn't cause the place to close, and therefore these families to fall on even harder times.
Never mind, I forgot... Apple is evil. Samsung and the rest of the "cover it up" companies are always good guys.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
I'm sure no parents, all over the world, want their kids to work. The fact that these were means they must be from a very poor family who had no other choice. So I hope the loss of Apple's business doesn't cause the place to close, and therefore these families to fall on even harder times.
To calm your fears, set up shop in the US and bring them over to work for you.
I doubt his point wasn't that they children should be allowed to work but the deeper concern for why children would have to work in those countries or regions.
Underage workers don't really concern me. If some poor family wants to let their 14 year old son or daughter work at a decent job and make money, then who am I to deny them that? Is it better if their 14 year old daughter starts turning tricks instead? What matters is production and profit and Apple taking the appropriate steps to make their stock more valuable again. Apple's suppliers should be hiring more workers, to make sure that there are no more unnecessary delays and slowdowns in production.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
I'm sure no parents, all over the world, want their kids to work. The fact that these were means they must be from a very poor family who had no other choice. So I hope the loss of Apple's business doesn't cause the place to close, and therefore these families to fall on even harder times.
I started working when I was in high school because my father didn't give decent allowances. $20 for the week? Sorry, but my father was CHEAP. So I started making what some might consider good money back in the late '70's. About $5/hour working in a retail store. I should have made more but you know how these people take advantage of kids. We aren't 18, so we don't have any rights. The place had many kids under 18 working there.
If the kids have parental convent there is NOTHING wrong with it. Don't people in this country go to fast food restaurants and have kids under 18 working there?
What I think they don't like is how they TREAT people, that's a concern. But that's their culture and that's how they discipline their people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by irnchriz
Big difference between getting a paper round or working part time in a shop stacking shelves or filling vegetable bags than leaving school and working full time in a sweat shop for the rest of your existence. If you can't see that then you truly are a terrible human being.
It doesn't follow that because you have a certain job when you're a kid you'll have the same job for the rest of your life. In fact if you're from a poor family, and they can't afford higher education for you, starting on the bottom rung somewhere and working your way up through sheer concentration and effort might be your best option.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple ][
Underage workers don't really concern me. If some poor family wants to let their 14 year old son or daughter work at a decent job and make money, then who am I to deny them that? Is it better if their 14 year old daughter starts turning tricks instead? What matters is production and profit and Apple taking the appropriate steps to make their stock more valuable again. Apple's suppliers should be hiring more workers, to make sure that there are no more unnecessary delays and slowdowns in production.
You're not exactly heartwarming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drblank
I started working when I was in high school because my father didn't give decent allowances. $20 for the week? Sorry, but my father was CHEAP. So I started making what some might consider good money back in the late '70's. About $5/hour working in a retail store. I should have made more but you know how these people take advantage of kids. We aren't 18, so we don't have any rights. The place had many kids under 18 working there.
If the kids have parental convent there is NOTHING wrong with it. Don't people in this country go to fast food restaurants and have kids under 18 working there?
What I think they don't like is how they TREAT people, that's a concern. But that's their culture and that's how they discipline their people.
<18 is not <15
Also, you're basically arguing that to each country its own rules (sounds interesting... why's America in Irak/Afghanistan again?) .
On top of which, you're deliberately equating "having a side job", which from 15 is considered OK in most countries to the problem, which is more "being out-of-school at 12 to work in a sweatshop". Not to mention children are more fragile to exposure to toxics than adults, due to their organism still being under construction.
I think your reasoning might benefit from a bit more thought...
It's getting harder and harder to employ the youth these days, working at 15 never did me any harm.
You got $20 per week allowance to be unacceptable in the 70s and considered your father cheap? Minimum wage in the 70s was something like $1.75 (I know - I had several minimum wage jobs in the 70s) so your $20 was the equivalent of someone else who worked about 12 hours a week. And then you complain about $5 per hour - three times the minimum wage?
Amazing.
Perhaps the dr. was shooting blanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ascii
I'm sure no parents, all over the world, want their kids to work. The fact that these were means they must be from a very poor family who had no other choice. So I hope the loss of Apple's business doesn't cause the place to close, and therefore these families to fall on even harder times.
Maybe, but it's not a behavior that has to be encouraged. There has to be a point where it's forbidden. A generation may suffer from it, then society adapts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by irnchriz
Big difference between getting a paper round or working part time in a shop stacking shelves or filling vegetable bags than leaving school and working full time in a sweat shop for the rest of your existence. If you can't see that then you truly are a terrible human being.
You are quick to put your words in his mouth and then condemn him. It sounds like the current gun law debate in the US. "If you oppose a gun ban, you support the murder of children. What a terrible human being!"