Revealing intimate details of Apple's supply chain for the first time, the firm has published its 2012 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, covering the companies that form the firm's supply chain, the number of audits conducted, the criteria of such audits and actions taken against policy violations.
This all comes in response to growing criticism over the firm's work ethics when it comes to ensuring appropriate treatment of workers in factories that produce components for Apple devices. HEXUS reported back in November on a strike at a factory in China, which produced primarily Apple products, where workers highlighted poor conditions, hours and pay; there have also been reports throughout the news of a rash of suicides at other factories such as Foxconn, another producer of Apple components, with more recently reports of factories with environmental violations and workers threatening mass suicide.
"We require that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made." stated Apple, with the report detailing that the firm had conducted 229 audits over the past year, an 80 per cent rise from 2010.
The audit revealed overall, on average, 74 per cent of practises were compliant with Apple policy, with some of the violations including examples of discrimination against workers with illness or pregnancy, with 93 facilities exceeding Apple's 60 hours a week working limit on a large scale and 108 facilities paying insufficient overtime. Two facilities had been found to be repeat offenders, seeing Apple terminate business with one and applying corrective measures with the other.
Whilst it's difficult to place trust in any first-party report and that there will no doubt be elements of favourably worded content, the report is certainly worth a read and provides an interesting insight into the situations of what are primarily Chinese factory workers.
