Gadget Bloggers

“Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible.”    From apple.com

Apple makes such a big deal about its corporate responsibility that it has an entire Code of Conduct for its suppliers, covering issues such as working conditions, overtime, child labor, etc.

So temperatures were rising in Cupertino (company headquarters) when Apple managers read in the London Daily Mail about forced labor, 15-hour days, 7 day work weeks, and far-below minimum wages for workers at the factory in China where iPods are put together.  (Apple’s Code limits factory workers to 10 hour days, six day weeks.) 

The “good news” - there was no evidence of forced labor, according to an audit done by Apple, based in part on interviews with 100 workers, chosen from among the 30,000 or so at the factory. 

An international trade union representative says it has “serious reservations” about Apple’s audit, saying “we do not know the conditions under which the interviews (with workers) were held.”

In addition to long working hours and no days off, there were questions asked about huge warehouses being used as dormitories for workers, and forcing workers to stand at attention as a form of punishment.

[via New York Times, Daily Tech]Â