A video documentary about Chinese factories that assemble Apple products has refocused public attention on labour issues like excessive work hours.
The documentary, which was produced by the BBC and shown last week, involved a number of undercover reporters working in factories run by Pegatron, a supplier that assembles iPhones and iPads, among other products, on the outskirts of Shanghai. The reporters said that rules regarding work hours were routinely broken.
Apple's policy limits factory workers to a 60-hour work week. One undercover worker reported working 18 days in a row, despite requests for days off, and another reported working a 16-hour shift, the BBC said. Workers were filmed falling asleep on 12-hour shifts.
The documentary also showed a reporter's ID card being stolen by a manager. And the BBC said reporters saw children working in tin mines in Indonesia.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the documentary, but pointed to an email written by Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president for operations, to 5000 Apple employees in Britain in the wake of the documentary.
Mr. Williams said he and Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, were deeply offended by the BBC's conclusions. He also noted that this year, Apple's suppliers had achieved 93 per cent compliance of Apple's 60-hour work week, an improvement from past years.
"We can still do better. And we will," Mr. Williams wrote in the email. Mr. Williams added that Apple has already said in its supplier reports that tin from Indonesia, some from potentially illegal mines, occasionally ends up in its products, and Apple was trying to implement a system to hold smelters accountable.
Apple, like Samsung and several other big tech corporations, has faced scrutiny over working conditions at factories in China. In 2013, Apple formed a board of academics who make recommendations about its supplier policies and practices.
Richard Locke, a professor at Brown University who is chairman of the academic advisory board, said he had studied working conditions for many companies, and Apple has gone beyond standard practices.
For one, Apple's team working with suppliers is deeply engaged with trying to solve problems, he said. For example, Apple runs a training program to teach suppliers to do a better job at tracking worker hours, Mr. Locke said.
"They'll say, 'We've been tracking work hours and something's going on here. What's the root cause and what do we do about it?' As opposed to merely recording things," Mr. Locke said.
Apple has also been working to educate employees across different departments of the company about labour issues so more people can actively keep an eye on working conditions when they visit the factories, Mr. Locke said.
The New York Times
