Apple: Our Supplier Factories Employed Minors
Apple has said that it has found 17 labor violations at its factories. The one garnering most attention is the use of underage employees.
Apple has released its 2010 Supplier Responsibility report (PDF), revealing that three of its suppliers have hired underage workers. Though these employees were either no longer working at the factories or no longer underage at the time of the audit, Apple's inspectors found records of 11 employees who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age. However, child labor was not the only violation uncovered by the audit.
Apple also found more than 50 factories that forced employees to work longer than Apple's maximum 60-hour weeks. Some facilities were depriving staff of benefits such as sick leave. All told, the inspectors uncovered 17 violations; a 'core violation' is considered the most serious class of violation. "It refers to any practice or situation that we consider to be contrary to the core principles underlying Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct," Apple said.
Three of these violations were cases of falsifying records. That is, factories tried to cover up other violations by presenting inspectors with records that had been tampered with. One had tried to cover up hiring underage workers in the past, while the other two tried to cover up the fact that employees were overworked and not awarded days of rest. One facility falsified these records two years running. The company was caught in both 2008 and 2009.
Apple also found a staggering number of facilities that were not paying staff correctly:
At 48 of the facilities audited, we found that overtime wages had been calculated improperly, resulting in underpayment of overtime wages. At 24 facilities, our auditors found that workers had been paid less than minimum wage for regular working hours. In most of these cases, the facility’s pay structure for regular hours depended on attendance-related bonuses to meet minimum wage requirements; without these bonuses, there was no guarantee that the minimum wage would be met. We also found 15 facilities where the facility’s pay structure was unnecessarily complex and could result in underpayment of wages.
Other violations include excessive recruitment fees and three cases where suppliers contracted with non-certified vendors for hazardous waste disposal.
When a core violation is detected, Apple requires that the facility remedy the situation immediately, as well as implement management systems that ensure continued compliance. The facility is also placed on probation for a period of one year, ending with a reaudit to ensure the violation has not reoccurred.
Apple inspected 102 facilities across China, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States.

steddy - Apple clearly is not doing anything about this problem despite knowing about it. These reports are published every year and have consistently shown the have recurring problems. It would seem that Apple is okay with workshops.
Also, sixty hours a week isn't an overwhelming amount of time... granted that "forcing" people to work that amount of time is pretty uncouth in the USA and most modern civilization, but it's pretty common practice in your poorer countries to work long hours in order to pay the bills.
I'm not trying to say that these aren't bad things, but clearly Apple is taking an initiative on fixing them which is pretty noble when you consider that companies like Nike have employers in India that literally OWN the children that work for them and are treated like slaves while the corporate side just denies it all.
steddy - Apple clearly is not doing anything about this problem despite knowing about it. These reports are published every year and have consistently shown the have recurring problems. It would seem that Apple is okay with workshops.
Really I didnt see anything noble in there, as a matter of fact I saw the exact opposite. You point me to the place in the story where Apple pulls the factories contract because of the violations, and I will agree. Until then apple hasnt done anything besides run a report.
you know Toms its funny the dumb ads and feedback expand everytime I roll over them by accident, but half the time the damn submit button doesnt work. Maybe you should fix that.
This is exactly right. Apple cared enough to find out and now the press is trying to screw them for it. I guarantee all the parts suppliers use child labor...
If you read the full report (or read it from a news source that writes in longer than 3-paragraph stories) you would see that they ARE challenging/renegotiating contracts with supplier companies because of the violations.
And the fact they need this job is even more outrageous. If this people could finish secondary school, they'd be able to read, write, understand their basic rights and have a rudimentary grasp of maths and economics. In other words, they'd have skills to build a better future not a single aid initiative could dream of achieving.
First off, I admit that I hate Apple. I feel like they are nothing but profit mongers. Saying that, I will also admit that to even have policies like this where they watch thier suppliers and subcontracts is very noble. All electronics companies use subcontractors and suppliers and you would be surprized the human violations involved. For example, I love Asus computers but I wouldn't be surprized that their suppliers would have even more violations (especially since they arent a US company).
It's an unfortunate fact today. If people want something cheap, it will be made with cheap labor. If you look at the things the average family has been able to afford over the past 30-40 years, they have increased dramatically mainly because of forein cheap labor (Wal-Mart is a perfect example).
Anyhow, as much as I dislike Apple, I give them kudos for having a policy to minimize human rights violations.
No wait ...
What you may not realize is that many forein countries have their high school education at the same level of many colleges in the US. Believe it or not, the US is known for its education mainly because of the graduate programs.
Our company put an office in Costa Rica, and there are tons of Engineers with college degrees working fixing cars or working as a cashier because they cant find an engineering job.
Dont get me wrong, I am all for education, nothing bad can happen if you have an educated society, but there are some countries that already have a decent education system and they are still borderline 3rd world countries because of the corruption/poverty levels.
They did this for the exact reason you just proved! It's a PR strategy, perhaps one of the oldest in the book of corporate public relations. I'm not saying it's good or bad, I am just saying, nothing is every done out of the goodness of the heart, Apple, after-all, is about the same thing as every single corporation - money! How they make money? If you buy their products, and such "news" shows that they are 'ethical' and 'caring' and you might be inclined to buy their product. It works. Unfortunately, all their stuff is made in Asian countries, do you really believe (think about this) that there's only 11 minors sucked into the vacuum of cheap labor in their factories/suppliers? Come on...
Steve
Sent from my child-made iPhone.