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Apple Responds to Labor Accusations

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the due-diligence dept.

jlaxson writes "Back in June, a number of accusations were leveled at Apple regarding labor practices in its overseas manufacturing and assembly plants. At the time, Apple denied the allegations and said that it would launch an investigation. Today, the results of the investigation were released. From the report: 'We found the supplier to be in compliance in the majority of the areas audited. However, we did find violations to our Code of Conduct, as well as other areas for improvement that we are working with the supplier to address. What follows is a summary of what we've learned, what's already being done in response, and our commitment to future diligence and action.'"

5 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Audits? What they had seen... by RuBLed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    may not be what is really happening.

    IMHO, most audits are scheduled and the management knows about it weeks or even months before the audit. This could buy the management "time" to "instruct" everyone about the audit and do some "beautification". This could also be the time "silence" and "hide" some people too. I'm not saying that the manufacturing facility was dishonest during the audit but given the location of the manufacturing facilities (China), I would not be suprised if they turned out to be dishonest. (who wants to lose a client anyway)

    But I really hope that the results of the audit are honest and true for the sake of all those people working there. Minor improvements there could greatly help the welfare of the workers.

    1. Re:Audits? What they had seen... by gutnor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Why is it so hard for people to believe that working conditions in the rest of the world simply aren't that bad? "

      I guess people tends to believe that because of human nature. They see that employers even in country like EU, USA, ... need to be -legally- reminded from time to time than employees are not slaves or pigs. So they wonder what happen in countries where law is not as strong.
      Also, they know very well that Apple and IBM and other don't go in China in good heart to help local population to develop. They are no ONG, they are business managed by the same sort of people that showed utter disrespect even to their fellow citizen ( ENRON, ... ). So they have hard to believe that they behave like choir boys in China.

      Everybody is happy if everything is fine in this plant but that's always good to remind companies like Apple, IBM that "Chinese are cool with their people" argument is not enough if they don't want to make the cover of Fox News. At least if they outsource my job, I want guarantee that people that get it are treated fairly and improve their life with it, so that at least not everything is lost.

  2. Re:However? by duffel · · Score: 3, Insightful
    being in compliance with the majority of areas audited means you failed to comply with all of them. I mean, Charles Manson was in compliance with most of the laws of the time...

    And if copy a song from a friend, you fail to comply with all the laws. That doesn't make you a serial killer. If you read the article, you will see what the code of conduct violations were, and how they were/are being addressed.
  3. Re:Also... by Rosyna · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While this is true, Apple would just drop Foxcomm completely. You may think that Apple would never do this due to the amount of money Apple could lose. You'd be wrong. Steve Jobs has been known to drop companies that embarrass him, even if dropping them means less profits.

  4. Re:Working Conditions: Japan Better than USA by udderly · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't it funny how those overtime hours that employers *need* us to work so badly dry up when they have to start paying for them.