Fair Labor Association Finds Progress in Follow-Up Status Report on Foxconn's Apple Facilities

The Fair Labor Association (FLA) today announced the release of a status report outlining progress that has made since the group's initial high-profile audits of several Foxconn facilities in China serving as assembly plants for Apple products. In follow-up visits to the plants in late June and early July, the FLA found that Foxconn has made a number of changes to help meet the group's recommendations for improving working conditions.

“Our verification shows that the necessary changes, including immediate health and safety measures, have been made. We are satisfied that Apple has done its due diligence thus far to hold Foxconn accountable for complying with the action plan, including the commitment to reform its internship program,” said Auret van Heerden, President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association. “When we finished our initial investigation in March, Foxconn promised to address concerns with its internship program by ensuring that student interns do not work overtime, their work has a more direct connection to their field of study, and they understand that they are free to terminate the internship if and when they wish.”

apple fair labor association logos
Foxconn has also begun taking steps toward meeting working hour goals by July 2013, already moving to limit workers to 60 hours per week including overtime and making plans to reduce hours further to 40 regular hours and nine overtime hours per week while still protecting worker salaries.

“The verification confirmed that Apple and Foxconn are ahead of schedule in improving the conditions under which some of the world's most popular electronics are being made,” said van Heerden. “Apple and Foxconn’s progress since the March assessment, combined with the additional actions planned through July 2013, would create the roadmap for all Chinese suppliers in the tech industry.”

Human Rights First, one of the groups backing the FLA, has also acknowledges that significant progress has been made at Foxconn's facilities in China, but also continues to push Apple to hold all of its suppliers to similar standards.

“Foxconn has completed nearly 80 percent of the FLA actions recommended in March. They are ahead of schedule in implementing many of the changes necessary to ensure the health and welfare of Foxconn employees and bring the company’s work conditions into compliance with basic human rights standards,” said Human Rights First’s Meg Roggensack. “This is a win for the employees of Foxconn and for the FLA’s new assessment process. Now, Apple must continue to take steps that ensure all workers within its supply chain have access to these same standards.”

Full details on the Fair Labor Association's status report are available on the group's site, and Apple offers its own information on supplier responsibility on its site. According to Apple, tracking of over 700,000 workers throughout the company's supply chain reveals that 97% of worker weeks were compliant with the current 60-hour maximum standard in July, up well over ten percentage points since the beginning of the year.

Popular Stories

apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

iPhone Driver's Licenses: These 17 U.S. States Offer Them or Will Later

Thursday June 19, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states and Puerto...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
ios 26 call holding

iOS 26 Beta is Hiding a New Ringtone — Here's What It Sounds Like

Thursday June 19, 2025 7:25 pm PDT by
Apple is hiding a new ringtone within iOS 26. The new ringtone is an alternative version of the existing Reflection ringtone, which has been the default ringtone since the iPhone X was released in 2017. It was discovered within the code for the first developer beta of iOS 26, but it remains hidden, so you will not find it in the list of ringtones available in the Settings app for now. It...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Wednesday June 18, 2025 10:24 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a few days after Apple provided the betas to developers. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. When the...
General Spotify Feature

Spotify Preparing to Launch Long-Awaited Lossless Audio Tier on iPhone

Thursday June 19, 2025 1:46 pm PDT by
Spotify appears to be gearing up to launch its long-awaited lossless music tier. Chris Messina (via TechCrunch) and Spicetify (via The Verge) spotted new lossless references within the code for Spotify's desktop app and web player. With assistance from Aaron Perris, MacRumors has confirmed that the latest beta of the Spotify app for the iPhone also contains new lossless-related code....
new iphone lockscreen ios 26

iOS 26: Five Changes Coming to Your iPhone Lock Screen

Tuesday June 17, 2025 8:46 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has made some additions to the iPhone Lock Screen that aim to make it more customizable than ever. Of course, things can always change before the software makes its way to the general iPhone-owning public, but here are five new things iOS 26 can do on the Lock Screen as of the current developer beta. Widgets Top or Bottom In iOS 18, the row of widgets on your Lock...
Craig Federighi No

John Gruber Reacts to Apple Declining His Interview After His Criticism

Wednesday June 18, 2025 8:10 pm PDT by
Every year between 2015 and 2024, at least one Apple executive agreed to be interviewed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber for a special WWDC episode of his podcast, The Talk Show. Last year, for example, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and top AI researcher John Giannandrea joined Gruber on stage at the California Theatre in San Jose to discuss...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Says iOS 26 Won't Be Available on These iPhone Models

Tuesday June 10, 2025 6:58 am PDT by
Apple this week revealed that iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. That means that iOS 18 is the end of the road for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which were all released in 2018. However, those devices will continue to receive security updates for at least a few more years. iOS 26 is compatible with the following iPhone models: iPhone 16e iPhone...

Top Rated Comments

Klae17 Avatar
168 months ago
Good for publicity, but I've been to China, and trust me, the people there need the jobs and as many hours as they can get. I'm all go for the health and safety improvements, but the hours cut will definitely affect the worker's livelihood and their families that depend on them. If they didn't like it or didn't have to work there, they wouldn't. But they chose the employment of Foxxcon because it is better than anything else they can get.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlieegan3 Avatar
168 months ago
This is great but they are only under such close observation because they are Apple, and everyone wants to have a little go at them.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
avonord Avatar
168 months ago
When are they doing an audit on Samsung?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macs4nw Avatar
168 months ago
This is great but they are only under such close observation because they are Apple, and everyone wants to have a little go at them.

When are they doing an audit on Samsung?

If it was that much of a law (more of a stunt for the government to say "see, we support labor laws"), wouldn't you think the Chinese government would already be going around and enforcing it?
In the US, that gets taken care of relatively fast. If the Chinese government cared about labor laws, international fair labor organizations wouldn't be scrutinizing.

Oh wait...what? No other computer hardware manufacturer participates in the the program? Really? Why is that never, never, never, mentioned....?

Cannot abide interfering little socialist busybodies!

All above posts: Well said!! While I support Chinese workers' right to decent employment standards, I don't think it is fair or reasonable to expect APPLE or any other single company to be the moral policeman for the third world. I wouldn't have objected as much if the FLA had pressured the US government to bring up those issues during Trade Talks. The responsibility to fix China's labor standards lies squarely with the Chinese government. For us to demand changes in those areas, though well intentioned, is tantamount to interfering in other countries' domestic affairs.

Change does not come overnight, and in these kinds of issues, we cannot and should not be bullying other countries to see things our way.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Klae17 Avatar
168 months ago
Did you even read any of that? They'll be paid the same. Despite the reduced hours.

Yes I did read it. It says "protect the workers salaries." I also applied my own knowledge from MBA school and world travel and corporate behavior. They don't necessarily mean they will pay them the exact same salary. I did not see that. That can just mean they will be paying the same hourly rate, they might not be translating salary correctly. If you think that foxxcon won't be makin cuts here and there to make the profit margins... Well then you should look at the boat loads of companies that have made cuts and made conditions poorer than before.

If they are reduced from 70-80 hours a week, down to 40-60, that leaves 20-30 hours needing to be filled. For every two workers, you would need one extra to pick up lost hours of 40-60. That's increasing the workforce by 33%. Then what about housing at the apartments there? Living conditions, factory conditions, and health conditions will definitely be taxed.

When Apple is in the spotlight, it's hard to not get shined on too. Foxxcon was making money and had these conditions before apple most certainly.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wordwise Avatar
168 months ago
No other computer manufacturer participates...

Oh wait...what? No other computer hardware manufacturer participates in the the program? Really? Why is that never, never, never, mentioned....?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)