A flood of suicides occurring at Apple’s manufacturing plants has motivated the company to divulge more than 150 of its suppliers who will have their working conditions monitored by an outside labour group.
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However the company has had to reassess their Fort Knox approach following an internal audit that showed just 38% of its suppliers followed standards set by Apple, which include a 60 hour maximum working week and a minimum of one day off a week (ten hours per day).
The report showed that one in three suppliers failed to adhere to injury prevention practices and were negligent in managing hazardous substances.
Apple believes child labour has been eliminated from its final assembly suppliers.
“We will continue regular audits and go even deeper into our supply chain to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier,” said the company in the report.
Apple endured criticism following a series of suicides that occurred in a Foxconn plant, which is responsible for the production of Apple’s iPhones. Apple’s late founder, Steve Jobs, denied claims in 2010 that Apple supported plants with “sweatshop” working conditions.
Apple has increased its efforts in appeasing supplier working conditions by upping the audits featured in its Supplier Responsibility report by 80 per cent in 2010.
They are also allowing the Fair Labour Association to investigate and report the work conditions hosted by its suppliers.
“With the benefit of the FLA’s experience and expertise, we will continue to drive improvements for workers and provide even greater transparency into our supply chain,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations.
