Some Apple Suppliers Used Child Labor, Apple Finds
Apple released a complete list of its suppliers for the first time on Friday, saying some of the 156 companies with which it contracts don't adhere to its standards for labor or environmental practices, including a ban on child labor. "Apple said it found 6 active and 13 historical cases of underage labor at some component suppliers but said it did not find any underage workers at its final assembly suppliers," Reuters wrote of the report, which you can read in full [PDF] on Apple's website. It also found some of the companies didn't adhere to environmental standards or those governing labor practices in adult workers. "For example, the report said Apple's suppliers were in compliance with the company's code of a maximum of a 60-hour work week only 38% of the time," the Wall Street Journal reported. But the company's trying to open itself up, so that's a good thing. It's clearly feeling pressure from the mounting reports of employee mistreatment at places like Foxconn, which makes Apple products in China and where workers threatened a mass suicide if conditions didn't improve.
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Update (2:30 p.m. EST): Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke with Reuters about the report, saying it was how Apple was working to hold its suppliers to ever-higher standards:
"With every year, we expand our program, we go deeper in our supply chain, we make it harder to comply," Cook told Reuters in an interview. "All of this means that workers will be treated better and better with each passing year. It's not something we feel like we have done what we can do, much remains to be done."
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"I would like to make a significant improvement in the overtime area. I would like to totally eliminate every case of underage employment," said Cook. "We have done that in all of our final assembly. As we go deeper into the supply chain, we found that age verification system isn't sophisticated enough. This is something we feel very strongly about and we want to eliminate totally."
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