Apple Cracks Down on Bonded Labor Practices in iPhone Factories

[onehandle]

Source: Mac Observer

Apple is taking a strong stance against factory workers being forced to pay for the privilege of getting a job. In the iPhone and iPad maker's latest Supplier Responsibility Progress report, the company says employees working in factories that make its products cannot be forced into bonded labor or paying recruitment fees.

Apple warned its manufacturing partners in October 2014 that bonded labor wasn't an acceptable practice and that starting in 2015 no workers on Apple assembly lines could be charged any recruitment fees. The report stated,

To protect foreign contract workers, Apple required our suppliers to reimburse US$3.96 million in excess fees to over 4500 foreign contractors in 2014, bringing the total reimbursements to US$20.96 million to over 30,000 foreign contract workers since our program began in 2008. To drive change, we also audited 100 percent of our top 200 facilities that were most at risk of hiring foreign workers, conducting nearly 70 bonded labor assessments.

Many factory workers are recruited through employment services who then charge workers fees for getting them a job. Those fees, often times equal to a month's pay, put workers in debt even before they start their new job.

Read more: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-cracks-down-on-bonded-labor-practices-in-iphone-factories

[Orsino]

1. "Strong stance" = weak tea. n/t

[we can do it]

2. What exactly are you typing this on?

[Orsino]

4. An iPad. I'm part of the problem.

Or I used to be, certainly.

[we can do it]

5. My point was - it wouldn't be better if it was another brand.

[Orsino]

6. You are mostly correct.

Apple is a chief offender because of scale, but every competitor must feel their push toward slave labor.

The real villains may be the men who passed the laws permitting what they do, and giving me access to such products.

[midnight]

3. K&R

[tridim]

7. Hey Apple, how about moving manufacturing back to this country?

You have 100 times the cash reserves in the bank that you need to make it happen.

[BobbyBoring]

8. this is just one reason I won't own an iPhone or an iPad.

I disapprove of all Apples manufacturing methods. They are also sitting on I think over a hundred billion dollars in cash which would do our economy a lot of good.

[onehandle]

9. Did you post this on a device made from twigs and berries?

No?

Well I got bad news for you, manufacturing-wise...