Apple Released Its Audit on Working Conditions — Not All Is Well

A lot of us admire Apple products, dream of one day possessing them. It’s even a status symbol for some of us. Have you ever wondered what the people who make Apple products every day dream of?
Do you think they too want to one day own an iPhone X?

Well No!

When you get an insight into their lives, you might want to rethink on that desire of yours. Or, at the very least, hope that the people who make your dreams come true, realize theirs as well, and work towards making that a possibility.

True, Apple suppliers workers’ condition has definitely improved since 2011, when a measly 38% of its suppliers were in compliance with Apple’s policies. Apple has since taken drastic steps, and the compliance rate rose to 92%. As per the latest audit conducted by the company, that rate has once again begun to fall for the year 2017.

The annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report has attributed several labour violations to “improper provision of wages and benefits and working hours’ violations”. One such violation is of $1 million being extorted from over 700 foreign contract workers from the Philippines to work for a supplier. The supplier was made to repay the money by Apple. Bonded labour was banned by Apple in 2015. But three instances were found where employees were pressed to pay an unwarranted fees in order to get a job. There were two violations with regard to underage labour, where employees aged 14 and 15 used fake identification to land a job. A supplier refused to give documentation to an auditor and forbade access to a site, which resulted in an access restriction violation. 38 violations regarding the falsification of the 60 hour work week at Apple were found as well.

756 supply chain assessments, across 30 countries, scored 90% in healthy and safety standards. There have been violations in living and working conditions, incident management, and health and safety permitting. Additionally, the audit reported lack of fire detectors at necessary places in several supply chains. Violations in the protocol for management of hazardous substances and environmental permits resulted in a 91% average environmental score. There have also been instances “related to air emissions” and improper management of wastewater.

This decline in compliance with Apple’s policies is a consequence the company hiring several new suppliers in 2017. It has also broadened the scope of its audits to include a total of 1.3 million employees, which is 30% more than the last few years. With new member in the audit net, they will learn fast and will not show up in the non-compliance statistics in the coming year.

The same report also outlined a women’s health initiative that Apple is launching for its supplier plants. It aims to reach a million women by the year 2020. The company had also launched an initiative to train more factory line leaders instead of line workers, who make up to 30% less than factory line leaders.

Apple has been proactive in making this data public in an attempt to be seen trying to enforce a better working environment for its employees. It’s a calculated risk — nobody wants to reveal their own limitations, but actively taking steps to ensure its employees are satisfied with working conditions is not something a lot of manufacturers are doing at the moment. This does set Apple apart from most OEMs and it does give their products an allure of a responsible brand. Actions say more than words, though. It’s not easy to do what Apple is saying, especially as it will need to recruit thousands of workers to make up for the overtime of its current employees. Apple will prioritizes its ethical responsibilities to its employees rather than financial gain.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.