Wolf Larson
3rd March 2010, 20:03
[Everyone turn the volume up on your I-pods. I can honestly say I haven't bought one, even if I could afford it, after reading this, no thanks]
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201003/20100302/article_429932.htm
COMPUTER giant Apple is using suppliers that break China's labor laws and provide poor working conditions. At least 11 children were found working last year in three factories, believed to be on the Chinese mainland, that assemble Apple's iPods, iPhones and Mac computers. Some suppliers were making staff members work more than 60 hours weekly and improperly disposing of hazardous waste, according to the United States-based company's annual supplier report released on its Website. Apple has supplier facilities elsewhere, including Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, but most of its products are assembled on the mainland.
"Apple required each facility to develop and institute appropriate management systems such as more thorough ID checks and verification procedures to prevent the future employment of underage workers," the company said in its Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report. Apple China yesterday declined to comment. The report said Apple found three facilities that hired 11 workers under the minimum legal age of 16. In the report, Apple admitted at least 55 of the 102 plants that produce its goods were ignoring a company edict that staff must not work more than 60 hours a week.
Under Chinese labor laws, workers must not put in more than 49 hours weekly. Only 65 percent of the factories were paying staff the correct wages and benefits. Apple found 24 plants where workers were not even paid China's minimum wage of about 800 yuan (US$117) a month, the report said. It was not the first time that Apple's suppliers, which operated 102 facilities with 133,000 workers in 2009, have received negative publicity. It was reported last week that dozens of workers at a Suzhou factory, which manufactures products for Apple and Nokia, had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blurred vision. Last year, an employee at Taiwan-based Foxconn, one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype of a new-model iPhone.<br><br>
AND IN 2008
Apple has been violating California's labor laws for several years, a former employee charges. David Walsh has this week filed a lawsuit against the company, saying that in his work as a network engineer between 1995 and 2007, he was regularly made to work more than 40 hours a week without overtime pay (http://macnn.com/rd/107619==http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/compensation/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=209903263). Walsh also complains of being forced to miss meals, and spend evenings and weekends on call without due compensation.
In detail, the suit contends that despite working standard daylight shifts as well, Walsh was expected to stay available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with support calls often arriving at his home after 11PM, preventing undisturbed sleep. Walsh in fact accuses Apple of deliberately misclassifying people such as himself, labeling them "management" so as to avoid investigation by the government of California.
The company "intentionally and deliberately created numerous job levels and a multitude of job titles," documents add, "to create a roadblock to discovery and class certification for all employees similarly classified as exempt."
Walsh's attorneys are petitioning to raise the case to class action status, on the basis that all of Apple's IT workers may be affected, including those on call for the company's retail stores. Unspecified damages are being sought, and Apple has yet to reply to the accusations.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201003/20100302/article_429932.htm
COMPUTER giant Apple is using suppliers that break China's labor laws and provide poor working conditions. At least 11 children were found working last year in three factories, believed to be on the Chinese mainland, that assemble Apple's iPods, iPhones and Mac computers. Some suppliers were making staff members work more than 60 hours weekly and improperly disposing of hazardous waste, according to the United States-based company's annual supplier report released on its Website. Apple has supplier facilities elsewhere, including Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, but most of its products are assembled on the mainland.
"Apple required each facility to develop and institute appropriate management systems such as more thorough ID checks and verification procedures to prevent the future employment of underage workers," the company said in its Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report. Apple China yesterday declined to comment. The report said Apple found three facilities that hired 11 workers under the minimum legal age of 16. In the report, Apple admitted at least 55 of the 102 plants that produce its goods were ignoring a company edict that staff must not work more than 60 hours a week.
Under Chinese labor laws, workers must not put in more than 49 hours weekly. Only 65 percent of the factories were paying staff the correct wages and benefits. Apple found 24 plants where workers were not even paid China's minimum wage of about 800 yuan (US$117) a month, the report said. It was not the first time that Apple's suppliers, which operated 102 facilities with 133,000 workers in 2009, have received negative publicity. It was reported last week that dozens of workers at a Suzhou factory, which manufactures products for Apple and Nokia, had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blurred vision. Last year, an employee at Taiwan-based Foxconn, one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype of a new-model iPhone.<br><br>
AND IN 2008
Apple has been violating California's labor laws for several years, a former employee charges. David Walsh has this week filed a lawsuit against the company, saying that in his work as a network engineer between 1995 and 2007, he was regularly made to work more than 40 hours a week without overtime pay (http://macnn.com/rd/107619==http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/compensation/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=209903263). Walsh also complains of being forced to miss meals, and spend evenings and weekends on call without due compensation.
In detail, the suit contends that despite working standard daylight shifts as well, Walsh was expected to stay available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with support calls often arriving at his home after 11PM, preventing undisturbed sleep. Walsh in fact accuses Apple of deliberately misclassifying people such as himself, labeling them "management" so as to avoid investigation by the government of California.
The company "intentionally and deliberately created numerous job levels and a multitude of job titles," documents add, "to create a roadblock to discovery and class certification for all employees similarly classified as exempt."
Walsh's attorneys are petitioning to raise the case to class action status, on the basis that all of Apple's IT workers may be affected, including those on call for the company's retail stores. Unspecified damages are being sought, and Apple has yet to reply to the accusations.