Apple nixes child labor practices at Chinese factories
Review finds Apple’s contractors in China hired 91 workers under the age of 16
By
Brad Reed, Network World February 15, 2011 11:31 AM ET
Print
Apple Tuesday said that it has terminated business with a Chinese factory that it found had employed 42 underage workers.
In Apple's "Supplier Responsibility" internal review released today, the company said that the factory accounted for nearly half of the 91 underage workers its contractors employed in 2010 to build products such as iPhone smartphones, iPad tablets and Macintosh computers. Apple decided to cut ties with this specific contractor factory because it had "determined that management had chosen to overlook the issue and was not committed to addressing the problem."
Apple says that the factory had been working with a vocational school that had "falsified student IDs and threatened retaliation against students who revealed their ages during audits." Apple reported the school to "appropriate authorities in the Chinese government."
In addition to reporting on labor standards violations, Apple reported the findings of its investigation into the 10 suicides
that occurred last year at its Shenzhen facility of Foxconn. Apple's "independent team" of suicide prevention specialists made several recommendations to reduce the likelihood of suicides
in the facility, including "better training of hotline staff and care center counselors and better monitoring to ensure effectiveness."
Rss Feed
The Connected Enterprise
You are previewing premium content. 
