Hong Kong-based nonprofit Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) has brought forth allegations (via Reuters) of major labor issues at Chinese factories belonging to Biel Crystal, a Hong-Kong based display supplier to Apple.
The workers rights group accuses the company of labor violations, such as forced 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, with only one day off each each month. Other accusations include the inadequate compensation to workers when they are injured, with employees reportedly required to sign blank contracts. The report also states that five workers at a company factory have committed suicide since 2011.
Apple also commented on the new accusations towards Biel Crystal:
"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," Apple said in a statement sent to Reuters in response to the SACOM report.
Biel Crystal employs more than 60,000 workers and has two factories in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Shenzhen. The new accusations also come after a number of alleged labor violations at Apple suppliers earlier this year, including reported workers rights issues at iPhone 5c supplier Jabil Circuit and primary supplier Pegatron. Apple also later issued a statement on the labor controversies surrounding Jabil Circuit, pledging to investigate.
Apple announced in July that it was forming an academic advisory board for its Supplier Responsibility program, saying that it wanted to ensure “safe and ethical working conditions wherever its products are made.” Apple has also published Supplier Responsibility Progress Reports every year since 2007, tracking the ethical progress of its suppliers in order to bring transparency to its product manufacturing process.
Top Rated Comments
There have been reportedly 5 suicides of employees since 2011. The population of the USA is about 5,000 times the number of Biel employees. Have there been more or fewer than 25,000 suicides in the USA since 2011? (Answer: About 40,000 per year). Did these suicides have anything to do with being employed at the company? Did they have anything to do with working on products for Apple?
Does Hong Kong student mean an employee trolling the internet for stories about your company to comment on?
there is nothing in the article that makes an innocent reader think that there is a correlation between the production of apple parts/products and suicide. its perfectly logical to name the highest profile customer of this particular plant/company.
are you freaking joking me? referring to companies very own pr social responsibility pages (thats like trusting samsungs benchmark results). apple has dragged its feet on this subject and the environmental one. if having apple named in a report like this upsets you so much then let them know it offends your pristine view of them
you dont seem to be arguing against workers right so i would think you would applaud any and all tips apple (and others) receive to improve their way of doing business
I recommend that they speak the only language that Apple and the defenders of all things Apple understand:
If they could avoid the cost of installation and maintenance of suicide nets (by no longer exploiting third world labor), Apple could further boost its profit margin. That should get Tim Cook fairly excited.
If that's the case, why bother mentioning Apple at all? Fact is, they stepped in at Foxconn, now they're expected to fix all the problems.