An audit of Foxconn Technology
Group found “serious and pressing” violations of Chinese labor laws, prompting
the biggest maker of Apple Inc. Apple devices to pledge to cut working hours
and give employees more oversight. Inspectors found at least 50 breaches of
Chinese regulations as well as the code of conduct Apple signed when it joined
the Fair Labor Association in January after deaths of workers at suppliers, the
monitoring group said today. Foxconn will bring hours in line with legal limits
by July 2013 and compensate its more than 1.2 million employees for overtime
lost due to the shorter work week. Assessors found cases of employees working
longer hours and more days in a row than allowed by FLA standards and Chinese
law. They uncovered inconsistent health and safety policies and instances of
unfair pay for overtime work. To meet its commitments, Foxconn must hire, train
and house tens of thousands of workers to assemble products for Apple.
Foxconn’s responded by saying, “we are committed to work with Apple to carry
out the remediation program, developed by both our companies”. “Our success
will be judged by future FLA audits and the monitoring of the implementation of
the remediation program, by reviews carried out by Apple and other customers
and by future employee surveys.”
Throughout this semester, I’ve been
following this issue of violation of labor laws in China, and it has finally
been recognized and something is being done about it. It is great that Foxconn
has finally taken the initiative to change these horrible conditions and treat
these workers the way they are suppose to be treated. Hopefully these laws will
stick and Apple won’t go back to treating workers like they used to. Now that
the eyes of the world are on companies mistreating their workers, like Apple,
there is just no way they cant deliver.
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