Apple: child labor at suppliers has risen sharply

Apple reports in its ‘supplier responsibility’ annual report that child labor has been detected more often at its suppliers. Also, at the company Wintek, 137 employees are said to have been poisoned by the hydrocarbon n-hexane.

The hardware manufacturer says it has tightened its monitoring of working conditions at its suppliers, because there were fears that the companies, mainly based in China, were cheating. For example, cases of child labor have been reported at some companies in the past, while Apple has also received negative news due to an alleged ‘suicide wave’ at supplier Foxconn.

In a new research from Apple to the working conditions at its suppliers, it is said that 91 cases of child labor have been discovered at ten companies. A year earlier, this figure was still 11 discovered cases. Apple would have obliged the companies concerned to pay the education costs for the children. The contract would also have been terminated with a company where 42 minors were used for production work.

Apple reports that 137 employees at the Chinese firm Wintek were poisoned by n-hexane, a substance used in cleaning products. Wintek is said to have removed the use of n-hexane from its production chain. The majority of the employees who became ill are also said to have returned to work by now.

Apple’s report states that only 32 percent of companies surveyed adhere to the standard of a 60-hour work week plus a day off. Last year, this figure was still 46 percent. Apple also reports that it is satisfied with the efforts of electronics manufacturer Foxconn to improve the working conditions of its employees.

A number of civil society organizations that had sharply criticized Apple last year, calls the publication of the report in The Guardian is a positive start. According to them, the American company would do well to also mention all the names of its suppliers.