“Apple Inc. sent medical experts to the Shanghai factory of contractor Pegatron Corp, who concluded that working conditions did not lead to the death from pneumonia of a 15-year-old boy who had lied to gain employment,” Clare Jim, Paul Carsten, and Poornima Gupta report for Reuters.
“The world’s most valuable technology company commissioned an investigation of suppliers’ Chinese factories last year by the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which in a report on Thursday said working hours at Foxconn now comply with its standard,” Jim, Carsten, and Gupta report. “‘Last month we sent independent medical experts from the U.S. and China to conduct an investigation of the (Pegatron) factory. While they have found no evidence of any link to working conditions there, we realize that is of little comfort to the families who have lost their loved ones,”‘ Apple said in a statement on Thursday. ‘Apple has a long-standing commitment to providing a safe and healthy workplace for every worker in our supply chain, and we have a team working with Pegatron at their facility to ensure that conditions meet our high standards.'”
“The Taiwanese company, which assembles Apple’s iPhone and iPad mini, concluded from its own investigation that the death was not related to work as the employee had only recently joined, and because the assembly line environment should not cause a condition such as pneumonia, said Pegatron spokesman Charles Lin,” Jim, Carsten, and Gupta report. “The employee used his 21-year-old cousin’s identification to apply for the job, so the factory did not know he was underage, Lin also said.”
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Worker deaths raise questions at an Apple contractor Pegatron in China – December 11, 2013