Apple reported progress among its supply chain during a year dominated by a worldwide hodgepodge of responses to COVID-19 as it released a supply chain responsibility report that covers labor, energy, and COVID-19.
Vlad Savov and Debby Wu for Bloomberg:
The Cupertino, California-based firm said improvements include a reduction in major violations of its code of conduct and no cases of child labor… It did cite several examples of suppliers failing to fulfill their duties and non-compliance with Apple’s working-hours policy.
Over the course of the pandemic-challenged year, Apple conducted 1,121 assessments across 53 countries, covering suppliers and assemblers as well as smelters and refiners. The company interviewed 57,618 workers to confirm their experience matched what management reported and followed up with a majority of them to ensure there was no retaliation. It also did more than 100 assessments without giving prior notice to the supplier…
The most serious violations of Apple’s code of conduct fell to nine instances in 2020, down from 2019’s 17 and a significant improvement on the 48 in 2017. Seven of the most recent cases related to working hours or labor data falsification, one was a wastewater violation and another was an air emission infraction.
MacDailyNews Take: Congratulations, Apple, on continued improvements all along the supply chain! See Apple’s full report here.