Apple's contract manufacturers are exposed for multiple violations: long working hours and low wages

The Fair Labor Association (FLA), a non-profit watchdog organization in the United States, recently released a report stating that two factories operated by Apple's contract manufacturers in China had a series of problems, including long working hours, low wages, poor health, and insufficient safety measures for employees. These problems have also occurred in other Apple contract factories such as Foxconn in the past few years.

According to the FLA report, the two factories are operated by Quanta Computer and are located in Shanghai and Changshu respectively. In August last year, the third-party labor monitoring agency Openview Service inspected the two factories on behalf of the FLA as part of its large-scale and ongoing monitoring of Apple's supply chain.

The FLA investigation found that 80% of workers "did not know whether they were members of a union." Despite health and safety policies, both factories had problems with indoor air testing, the Shanghai factory did not comply with regulations on the storage of flammable and toxic substances, and there were no employee representatives on the health and safety committee.

In response, Apple said that its experts have conducted 16 audits of suppliers, including the two Quanta factories, the most recent of which was last month. After the FLA audit, Apple has worked closely with Quanta to effectively improve the existing problems. Apple also conducted four follow-up inspections of the two factories to ensure that the necessary corrective measures were implemented. By July this year, Quanta's average implementation of Apple's requirement that workers work a maximum of 60 hours per week had reached 86%.

Apple's statement is as follows:

If we want to maintain our business relationship with Apple, our suppliers must comply with the most stringent standards in the industry. Apple is the first and only technology company to join the Fair Labor Association. We are committed to providing a safe and fair working environment for everyone in our supply chain.

Last year, we conducted 451 comprehensive on-site inspections at the front lines of our supply chain so we can identify problems and work with suppliers to solve them. We tracked and reported the weekly work hours of more than 1 million workers, and we launched the 18-month Apple Supplier EHS Academy training program to raise the bar for environmental, health and safety management across the industry.

The Quanta factories that the FLA inspected last year were included in our 2014 Supplier Responsibility Report, released in February of this year, and our own experts have conducted 16 inspections of these factories, most recently last month.

In the year since the FLA inspection, we have worked closely with Quanta to effectively improve the issues pointed out by the FLA and Apple. Apple has also conducted four follow-up inspections at the two factories to ensure that the necessary corrective measures have been implemented.

As of July this year, Quanta's compliance rate with the 60-hour work week was 86%. Excessive overtime is not in anyone's interest, and we will continue to work closely with Quanta and other suppliers to prevent this from happening.

Quanta has traditionally been the final assembler of Apple products, responsible for products such as the iPad. Recently, it has been reported that Apple will be responsible for assembling the long-rumored Apple smartwatch. Of the two factories, the Shanghai factory is the larger, with a total of 37,060 workers, while the Changshu factory has a total of 4,711 workers. As part of this investigation, FLA interviewed 389 workers at the Shanghai factory and 132 workers at the Changshu factory over a period of nine days, with most interviews conducted on the job site.

Although Apple publishes a supplier responsibility report every year, its overseas employment practices are still widely criticized by the media. Therefore, in January 2012, Apple joined the FLA, a third-party organization that inspects suppliers and production factories, looks for potential health and safety issues, and interviews workers. According to the agreement between FLA and Apple, the association can inspect Apple's supply chain and ask Apple to make changes.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.