14 DAY TRIAL // After learning about the BBC’s Panorama report on mistreated workers in China, Apple issued a response claiming it is doing everything in its power to stop these violations from taking place.
Pegatron is the second largest iPhone assembler for Apple. In a way, Pegatron’s factories are Apple’s factories. But the people handling operations there are no Apple employees.
The Cupertino giant does have some people there supervising operations, but they can’t keep a close eye on everything and everyone because of the sheer number of workers and facilities involved in the production of the iPhone.
The Panorama report
In a Panorama special, the BBC reported this week that almost every aspect regarding how Pegatron handles its workers’ ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and work hours had been breached. They found juvenile workers, exhausted staff falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts, and their undercover man was denied a day off after working 18 days in a row.
The video released by the BBC is unquestionably authentic, and reveals a sad truth that many had hoped would be a thing of the past. Apple has been struggling to adjust its partners’ practices for years, but apparently more work is necessary on behalf of the California tech company.
“No other company doing as much"
In a statement offered to the media, Apple said it was aware of “no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions,” stressing that it constantly collaborates with its partners “to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done.”
In an email to 5,000 staffers employed in the UK, operations chief Jeff Williams said he was “deeply offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a promise to the workers in our supply chain or mislead our customers in any way,” and noted that CEO Tim Cook felt the same way.
Williams says in the letter that Apple has 1400 coworkers stationed in China to manage operations involving the manufacturing of its hardware. These people are allegedly on hand in the factories at all times and they are “trained to speak up when they see safety risks or mistreatment.”
The SVP says Apple takes these allegations seriously and plans to investigate every claim knowing that there are indeed issues in its iPhone facilities in the Far East. Apple maintains an annual Supplier Responsibility Report where it basically just stresses over and over again how it struggles to eliminate these problems.
Williams’ letter, embedded below in full, also touches on the sensitive aspects of tin mining in Indonesia.
