Apple Responds To The Mail Chinese iPod Factory Claims

In a Mail on Sunday report about the manufacturing of Apple iPods, several claims were made, regarding the working conditions in the Chinese factories.

Apparently, the Mail visited the Foxconn Longhua plant that houses 200,000 workers, remarking: "This iPod City has a population bigger than Newcastle's." Also, according to the report, workers live in dormitories housing 100 people and toil for 15-hours a day, earning the equivalent of �27 per month.

Apple has replied to this report, stating that "Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible."

The Cupertino Company is "currently investigating the allegations regarding working conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China." However, Apple has stressed the fact that "it does not tolerate any violations of its supplier code of conduct, which is posted online".

This code can be accessed and read by anyone and is available in PDF form here.

"Recognized standards such as International Labour Organization Standards (ILO), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Social Accountability International (SAI), and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) were used as references in preparing this code," the company says on its website.

The code stipulates many things related to working conditions, such as the work week, which should be "restricted to 60 hours" with "at least one day off per seven-day week."
If the situation in the Longhua plant is indeed that reported by the Mail, then Foxconn is clearly in breach of Apple's Supplier Code of Conduct, and will face the consequences. However, if such breaches are not the fault of Apple, who through this code is trying to ensure that it's suppliers respect and do not mistreat their workers?