Apple supplier audit finds major wage and overtime violations

[MindMover]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A heavily anticipated report on working conditions at Apple supplier Foxconn documents dozens of major labor-rights violations, including excessive overtime, unpaid wages and salaries that aren't enough to cover basic living expenses.

More than 60% of the workers at three of Apple supplier Foxconn's factories in China say their wages fall short of their basic needs, according to a report released Thursday by auditors from the Fair Labor Association. The FLA is a watchdog group hired by Apple to audit its overseas suppliers.

The average monthly salaries at the plants range from 2,257 RMB in Chengdu -- around $358 in U.S. dollars -- to 2,872 RMB (USD $455) in Guanlan.

A team from the FLA, an independent labor-rights organization, arrived last month at the vast Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China, known as Foxconn City, to conduct a voluntary audit commissioned by Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500). Thursday's report, which the FLA said is the first of many, covered three factories in Guanlan, Longhua and Chengdu.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/29/technology/apple-foxconn-report/index.htm

===========================================================================

No whitewash: The FLA finds dozens of Foxconn violations

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/29/no-whitewash-the-fla-finds-dozens-of-foxconn-violations/?iid=T_Blogs

===========================================================================

[Blue_Tires]

1. I'm sure the higher ups were shocked...SHOCKED, I tell you!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. They commisioned it

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. People this was commisioned by the company...

I expect them to act on it. Not because it's apple, companies do not go through theis, which will give them a black eye, unless they intend to try to fix it.

[Sherman A1]

5. Agreed

If they didn't plan on some action, there would have been no reason to call for the audit.

[TheMadMonk]

9. Just like Nike commissioned their's ONLY AFTER they had their noses rubbed...

...in the shit by third party exposes.

No company can claim ignorance of "normal working conditions" in China.

Any company which just signs on the dotted line and waits for delivery of product has a very, very good idea of what conditions those goods will be manufactured under, unless they take SIGNIFICANT STEPS to assure otherwise.

And yet, time and time again, it is ONLY when companies are given that PR black eye, that they do anything about improving the conditions under which their product is manufactured. In Apple's case it was Foxconn's instalation of suicide nets.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Actually this is comming from previous reports they commisioned.

Personally it has all to do with the Apad. Go ahead and google that up...can you say Foxxcon?

Apple has been looking fr away to get even. That said, they will fix it.

You want an analogy? Nike is a bad one...now Intel, Nw you are cooking.

[gopiscrap]

4. Typical big business

[Pholus]

6. Hey, I'm probably one of Apple's harshest critics but if they actually clean it up I'll applaud.

And again all you Apple Cultists -- this would NOT have happened had Apple not been singled out.

"Everybody does it" was merely a desire for the status quo, which was NOT good enough.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I'll just point out this in the time line

The reason they were singled out s they commisioned a first study a few years ago, not because they are pure of heart.

Go ahead and find images of the APad. There are things going on here well beyond what you can see.

I expect them to clean up though. They have been in the get the goods mode for five years or so.

[Pholus]

8. Oh you are right of course. Chinese thoughts about IP forms a big part of this.

Tim Cook's trip had nothing to do with a photo op at a foxconn line and everything to do with resolving Apple's China IP issues.

If it wasn't for our lawyers and patent laws, Apple would quite probably be headquartered somewhere else right now for tax purposes.