A new report states that Apple is reluctant to ban suppliers found guilty of labor violations and may take years to do so, even in the most serious cases.
In one case, he says, Apple took three years to stop using a Chinese supplier who was repeatedly discovered to use child labor …
O Training load the report:
Seven years ago, Apple made a surprising discovery: among employees at a factory in China that manufactured most of the computer ports used in its MacBooks were two 15-year-olds. Apple told the manufacturer, Suyin Electronics, that it would not get any new business until it improved employee screening to ensure that no under-16s were hired.
Suyin promised to do so, but an Apple audit three months later found three more underage workers, including a 14-year-old. Apple, which has promised to ban suppliers who repeatedly turn to smaller workers, has stopped giving Suyin new business because of the violations. But it took Apple more than three years to completely cut its ties with Suyin, which continued to make HDMI, USB and other ports for older MacBooks under previous contracts.
Apple claims to have zero tolerance for such abuses, but several sources accuse Apple of dragging its feet when it doesn’t have an alternative supplier ready to fill a gap.
Apple faces problems to immediately remove suppliers who violate these rules consistently: Obviously, there are not many alternative manufacturers that can easily make up for the problem. New suppliers can take years to meet Apple’s demanding quality and volume standards. In Suyin’s case, Apple’s purchasing team was reluctant to abruptly shift orders to other suppliers because it would have created delays and incurred higher costs, said a former employee.
In interviews, 10 former members of Apple’s supplier responsibility team – the unit charged with monitoring manufacturing partners for violations of labor, environmental and safety rules – claimed that Apple prevented or delayed breaking ties with offenders when this happened. it would hurt your business. For example, former team members said, Apple continued to work with some vendors who refused to implement safety suggestions or who systematically violated labor laws.
One response from Apple seen twice recently is to prohibit an offending vendor from winning New contracts, but allow it to continue working on the current ones.
This is the action the Cupertino company took in response to Pegatron allowing students to work nights and overtime, violating Apple’s code of conduct, despite the fact that the supplier took “extraordinary steps” to hide what it was doing – that is, that future audits may not be reliable. Apple followed exactly the same line with Wistron in India, where workers were confirmed to be underpaid.
Given that companies can continue to work for Apple and win new business once they fix the problem, it is unclear how much incentive there is for suppliers to comply with the rules.
It is not the first time that former Apple employees have accused Apple of being an accomplice in violations of labor laws. A former Apple senior manager familiar with the company’s China operations said earlier this month that the company would cease to act if penalizing a supplier resulted in production delays.
The need to take a tougher stance on these abuses was one of the few criticisms I made of the company in my Apple newsletter in 2020.
Photo: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
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