Apple today published detailed responsibility audit, revealing that it found 91 children working for its suppliers last year, up from 11 in 2009.
Apple instituted the annual audit back in 2007, after receiving complaints about worker mistreatment. This year, it examined 127 facilities that make components for its products, including the iPhone and iPad, covering health, safety, working conditions, education and hiring practices.
In addition, the report details the steps Apple has taken to remedy the problems, noting that suppliers using underage children were ordered to pay for their education costs. It also fired one supplier for using 42 minors. Meanwhile, health and safety standards and transparency issues have improved at the facility that poisoned workers, while further training for staff and management is underway at factories with excessive working hours.
Lastly, Apple had forced companies to refund $3.2 million in unfair recruitment fees. Since then, compliance on wages and benefits has improved to 70 percent from 65 percent in 2009.
To further address problematic working conditions at its suppliers' factories, Apple is actively pursuing preventative measures, such as running a "Train the Trainers" program, which educates workers, supervisors and management about health, safety and workers' rights. The company maintains that the training is working, noting that last year, 93 percent of assembly-line workers were confident that they could provide feedback without fear of reprisal, up from 53 percent in 2009.
The program has reached 300,000 workers since its introduction.
The greatest efforts were directed at preventing a repeat of the multiple suicides that took place at Foxconn facilities in China. Then Apple COO, now chief executive, Tim Cook, took a team from Cupertino to the factory and interviewed 1,000 workers. They then made a series of recommendations, including better training for counselors and a 24-hour care center.
These were in addition to earlier Foxconn initiatives, including safety nets on dormitory buildings at the factory and a 30 percent pay raise. Foxconn organized dormitories on a regional basis, in a bid to create a greater sense of community to combat loneliness that many migrant workers face, and it even ran a rally, attended by 20,000 workers, to boost morale.
The report is a testament to the determined efforts by Apple to prevent supplier conduct from damaging their brand, but it also reflects the increasingly high standards that consumers demand from their favorite brands -- standards that will only become more demanding and rigorous as companies like Apple set an example.
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