Apple agrees to labour law infringements at its Chinese vendors; hires FLA to conduct independent audits – Part 1

Corporate sector has always been target for the infringement of fair labour laws and truth be told, companies have their fair share in scandals like propagating sweatshops and labour abuse. Since the dawn of the concept, free trade, corporations have outsourced their operations to countries where the labour is cheap and the material is inexpensive.

China has been the bull’s eye for fair labour activists all over the world and has attracted more opprobrium in the last one decade than any other country in the world. However, the latest victim has been Apple, who receives more than 90 percent of its hardware from Chinese manufactories.

In the last few weeks, Apple has attracted criticism over its ignorance on the labour law infringements in China. According to some reports, majority of Apple’s supply chain is involved in malpractice of the labour laws and the prominent among them is Foxconn, an electronic supplier in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Apple, in response to the strong resentment, confessed its oblivious stature in the matter and called for a series of independent audits. The company has signed a non-profit organization, Fair Labor Association (FLA), for the audits. Previously, Apple itself conducted audits of its supply chain, especially the Chinese vendors and highlighted Foxconn’s malpractice that is close of slavery.

Foxconn has strung nets around its plant, to catch workers who try to commit suicide by jumping from the roof. Some employees are as young as 11 years old, and many work shifts extend to 14 or even 24 hours. One worker died after toiling for 34 hours at a stretch. Last year, two explosions at Chinese iPad factories killed four people and left 77 injured.

However, there are mixed responses from experts on the course of action undertaken by Apple. One of the major concerns of the experts is that Apple never has and will never take a blow from activists regarding the unfair labour practices in China.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Feb 17 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.