News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

August 18, 2006

news

“iPod City” report reveals conditions overall acceptable, but problems exist

Posted Aug. 18, ’06, 8:05 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » News

Foxconn FactoryApple has finally addressed concerns about the conditions of workers in the Chinese plant that assembles iPods. The concerns first came to light in a report in the British paper, The Mail on Sunday, which alleged that workers at the Hon Hai (Foxconn) plant put it in excessive hours, for which they were not compensated, and that living conditions were unnecessarily harsh. In response, Apple launched a full-scale investigation to determine the facts, even as Hon Hai admitted that there were problems, which they were attempting to fix.

Yesterday, Apple released its thorough final report, which determined that the situation was acceptable for the most part, but that violations of their Code of Conduct did exist.

We did, however, find that employees worked longer hours than permitted by our Code of Conduct, which limits normal workweeks to 60 hours and requires at least one day off each week. We reviewed seven months of records from multiple shifts of different productions lines and found that the weekly limit was exceeded 35% of the time and employees worked more than six consecutive days 25% of the time. Although our Code of Conduct allows overtime limit exceptions in unusual circumstances, we believe in the importance of a healthy work-life balance and found these percentages to be excessive.
Apple and Hon Hai have moved to correct the deficiencies, and Apple has pledged to perform audits of all final assembly plants by the end of the year.

The timing for the company is fortuitous, as news reports yesterday were suggesting that Apple was considering Foxconn for a manufacturing contract for MacBooks.

[via Playlist]


Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: