“Apple Inc. (AAPL) uncovered labor violations in its supply chain, including the use of underage workers and abuses of migrant laborers lured by recruiters to work in factories making its devices,” Adam Satariano and Tim Culpan report for Bloomberg.
“Apple conducted 451 reviews of multiple levels in its supply chain covering facilities where nearly 1.5 million people work, according to its eighth annual internal audit. The company said it’s more aggressively trying to remove the use of so-called conflict minerals and has gotten 95 percent of the facilities to keep work to below 60 hours per week,” Satariano and Culpan report. “Apple said it found 23 workers who were under the age of 16 when hired, a drop from last year when 74 children were found to be employed by one manufacturer. The facilities that employed the children in 2013 didn’t have adequate policies to catch falsified documents, Apple said.”
“Discrimination of women was found at four facilities, which Apple said conducted pregnancy tests,” Satariano and Culpan report. “Apple said it found several instances of workers being tricked into paying excessive fees to recruiters in exchange for a job with its suppliers. The workers, typically from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, are then forced to work to pay off the debt, a violation of Apple’s policies that limit how much money recruiters can collect.”
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Apple confirms suppliers use conflict-free minerals – February 13, 2014