14 DAY TRIAL // A Hong Kong-based screen supplier for Apple has been found violating worker rights at its factories, where employees reportedly work 11-hour shifts, seven days a week.
As alarming as it sounds, it appears that workers at Biel Crystal Manufactory Ltd. have only one day off per month, while their contracts are reportedly “blank” sheets of paper.
Citing a Hong Kong rights group, Reuters reports that “Employees are also often injured and not given reasonable compensation [...] At least five workers at the firm's Guangdong factory in mainland China committed suicide since 2011,” the rights group is cited as saying.
Biel Crystal refused to comment, but Apple was willing to respond to these allegations via spokeswoman Kitty Potter, who says that the company “investigates such cases.”
Potter says, “We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made.”
In response to the SACOM report, Potter also tells Reuters, “Every year Apple inspects more factories, going deeper into the supply chain and raising the bar for our suppliers. In 2012 we conducted 393 audits at supplier facilities around the world.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the situation at Biel Crystal is contained. Far from it, actually, since the Hong Kong rights groups are taking steps to right this wrong.
Biel Crystal is just one of many Apple suppliers accused of violating worker rights, and while not all reports are 100% accurate, these cases usually end up with Apple either whipping the supplier into shape, or dropping it from the supply chain altogether.
Biel Crystal is said to employ more than 60,000 workers, and has factories in provinces Guangdong and Shenzhen. It isn’t clear for how long Biel has been a supplier for Apple.