Apple stops using teen labor in China

imgres-2Apple said a Chinese labor agent forged documents on behalf of underage workers as the world’s most-valuable technology company seeks to improve conditions at suppliers making iPhones, iPads and Macs. Bloomberg News reports that

“The electronics company also stopped doing business with a manufacturer that employed 74 people younger than 16 who used the faked papers, according to its annual Supplier Responsibility Report released today. The recruiter was reported to provincial authorities, fined and had its license suspended. ‘Underage labor is a subject no company wants to be associated with, so as a result I don’t believe it gets the attention it deserves, and as a result it doesn’t get fixed like it should,’ Jeff Williams, Cupertino, California-based Apple’s senior vice president of operations, said in an interview.

“Apple, which joined the Fair Labor Association last year after being criticized for working conditions at suppliers including Foxconn Technology Group, said it doubled the number of employees trained in worker rights, laws and safety. The designer of iPads and iPhones also said it started doing environmental audits and cooperated with a China group that had criticized its record. A total of 158 facilities globally lacked proper procedures or didn’t perform adequate audits of their own suppliers, according to the report.”

The report from Apple is at: http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2013_Progress_Report.pdf

The full Bloomberg story is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-25/apple-expands-audits-says-china-labor-agent-forged-documents.html

 

 

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