14 DAY TRIAL // As part of its annual Supplier Responsibility Report, Apple has pledged to eradicate “bonded servitude” at its assembly lines in the Far East. A statement from the company’s Senior Vice President of Operations reveals that Apple plans to absorb all the fees associated with a new hire in its Asian supply chain.
Apple’s Supplier Responsibility 2015 Progress Report is available for download in PDF format. The document contains an update from SVP Jeff Williams (in the form of an open letter) in which Apple’s operations boss outlines the measures undertaken by the Cupertino company to ensure fair treatment of its workers in China.
No more “bonded servitude”
A practice likened to modern-day slavery by the United Nations, bonded servitude implies that the recruit pay a fee - usually equal to one month’s pay - before getting the job. This may sound incredible to most people, but such practices are common throughout Asia.
In a statement provided to Bloomberg, Williams indicates that the situation is finally being addressed by Apple, which plans to foot the bill for every new hire in its supply chain.
“That fee needs to be paid by the supplier and Apple ultimately bears that fee when we pay the supplier and we’re OK doing that,” Jeff Williams said in an interview. “We just don’t want the worker to absorb that.”
Worker empowerment and education
Apple not only wants to free its workers from these invisible shackles, it also wants them educated and empowered, it says in the report.
As always, the company pledges to continue to carry out stringent audits and punish or even cease partnership with those suppliers that step over the line.
There's still a lot to be done
The report comes only a few months after the BBC published a so-called documentary showing the harsh conditions that some workers endured at Apple assembly lines in China.
The film is questionable in some areas, but nonetheless reiterates what other reports uncovered in the past - that worker moral in at least some parts of Apple’s Asian supply chain is at a critical low.
While reviewing the documentary and its findings, we felt it was necessary to outline that some of the wrongdoings found at Pegatron factories - which assemble iPhones and iPads - were mostly the fault of Pegatron management, not Apple’s.
The iPhone maker has nonetheless pledged to do as much as it can - and sometimes does even more than it is obligated to - in order to ensure fair treatment of workers not just in China, but in the entire supply chain worldwide.