The Fair Labor Association presented it’s latest report on Foxconn/Apple, and it’s good.
Out of about 360 actions required until July, 1st 2013, they have completed 284 on, or ahead of, schedule. <- PDF document.
I'm sure we'll hear about all the great improvements from Samsung and co. shortly…
The Fair Labor Association on Apple and Foxconn.
Keep in mind: Apple asked the FLA to audit them. No one else in the industry does that.
Main findings:
- 35.000 workers were interviewed in Guanlan, Longhua, and Chengdu.
- 4% of the workers are under 18. The legal working age is 16.
- Minimum wage in Shenzhen is USD 220. Foxconn pays USD 265, and after a probabtion period USD 325.
- 64% of workers find that’s not enough.
- 33% of workers want to work more.
- Average working hours per week: 56. Legal limit including overtime is 49.
- Foxconn pays overtime in 30 minute incriments. If a worker stops after 25 minutes, he loses those.
- Workers aged 16 and 17 were found to be working in hazardous areas.
- Apple and Foxconn have committed to change the offending practices by 2013 to comply with Chinese law and FLA standards.
There you have it. I wonder when the other players will follow Apple’s lead?
Brian Barrett (@brbarrett) of Gizmodo follows up all the hoopla and outrage Apple caught for the whole China made thing, which I have touched on a while back on February, 15th, with what all the other tech giants are doing in this area.
He’s quoting an article by John Herrman at Buzzfeed’s FWD who did the original legwork.
Choice cuts:
HP: Unfortunately I can’t provide a spokesperson for you at this time.
MS: As we presently have a robust auditing program in place, a deeper engagement with the organization (Fair Labor Association) has not been considered by Microsoft.
HTC: …we approach these issues with the goal of continually pushing ourselves, our suppliers and the industry towards ongoing improvement.
Toshiba: Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to your request.
Samsung, Asus, Sony: …
Right.
Following up on a few articles I wrote in the last few days, and weeks:
Tim Cook, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference today:
I would tell you that no one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple. We are constantly audition facilities, going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems, and fixing problems. And we report everything, because we believe that transparency is so very important in this area.
There’s much more in the interview. Check it out at Apple’s website.
Today, Apple Inc. announced that the Fair Labor Association will begin audits at Apple supplier Foxconn. That’s in addition to Apple’s own inspections, which have already resulted in Foxconn’s workers getting paid more (much more than the average chinese worker earns), living in better quarters, etc.
Let’s see when HP, Dell, Asus, Acer, Samsung, Sony, and all the others join them.
Care to take a bet?
