[opendtv] Apple admits rules violations at Chinese iPod plant

Well, who can complain as long as the code of conduct is followed? Six
days a week, 10 hours per day, sounds like something Apple should strive
to implement at home too.

Bert

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Apple admits rules violations at Chinese iPod plant

Gregg Keizer
(08/18/2006 1:18 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192202063

Apple Computer said Friday that charges of forced labor at a Chinese
iPod factory were unfounded, but admitted that the Longhau plant
exceeded the American company's limits on hours and days worked per
week.

Apple said it was taking immediate steps with the supplier to remedy all
issues.

"We found no instances of forced overtime," Apple said in a report
released Friday. "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." An
audit of the factory's records found that in the past seven months, the
hours-per-week limit was exceeded 35 percent of the time, and that
employees worked more than the maximum days-per-week 25 percent of the
time.

Apple's investigation was prompted by news reports in June that the
plant -- which employs a total of 200,000 workers -- paid its workers
half of the going rate, forced employees to work 15-hour shifts, and
charged them about half their wages for the company-provided room and
board.

The report dismissed most of those allegations, Apple said. "Our audit
of on-site dormitories found no violations of our Code of Conduct. We
were not satisfied, however, with the living conditions of three of the
off-site leased dorms that we visited," Apple said Friday. Also, all
workers are paid more than the local minimum wage, and more than half
make above the minimum wage, which in that part of China is
approximately 800 yuan ($100) per month.

During interviews with a cross-section of the workforce, Apple's
investigators also found two employees who reported that they'd been
made to stand at attention for disciplinary reasons.

"While we did not find this practice to be widespread, Apple has a zero
tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of
workers that could be interpreted as harsh," the company said. The
employer has launched a manager and employee training program to quash
such behavior.

Apple has hired Verit, an international consultant on workplace
standards, to monitor plants where its products are made. "In cases
where a supplier's efforts do not meet our expectations, their contracts
will be terminated," Apple promised. Most of the 50-plus million iPods
that Apple has sold since the portable music player's debut in 2001 were
made in China. The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer and electronics
maker controls an estimated 77 percent of the digital player market. 

All material on this site Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights
reserved.
 
 
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