Up to 60% of Apple suppliers violate company's conduct codes

Apple spends time and money policing its manufacturing partners to ensure they maintain a strict code of conduct, but the reality for many involved in manufacturing consumer electronic products is very different from anything most of us would tolerate.

For many factory workers, the reality is one in which hourly wages don’t reach one dollar, workers are sacked without warning or reason, sweatshop-like conditions prevail, and they have few - if any - rights.

Apple and other big high-tech brands have established “codes of conduct” for suppliers and regularly conduct factory audits to catch abuse.

“Our audits are done across all our suppliers,” Apple spokesperson Jill Tan told Wired. “It’s a pretty rigorous process, and we take corrective actions as and when required. We audit aggressively, and post all results on our website.”

Apple's recent "supplier responsibility" update, published in February 2009, revealed the company's own findings that nearly 60 percent of audited suppliers violated its code of conduct guidelines on work hours and days off.

Other violations included under-paying for overtime and deducting salary as punishment. Apple also found some factories that falsified records, employed under-age laborers and hired workers who had paid recruitment fees exceeding the legal limit.

These are potentially no more than the tip of the iceberg, a report warns, “Contractors shift orders across borders and between factories and subcontractors, and some brands treat their supplier list as top-secret information.”

GlobalPost correspondents Jonathan Adams and Kathleen E. McLaughlin interviewed workers in Taiwan, the Philippines and southern China, preparing a five-part special report on the working lives that create the products we use.

Additional findings:

• From Taiwanese workers, routine violations of Apple and industry codes of conduct on work hours, days off, overtime, worker complaint mechanisms and the right to organize.
• From Chinese workers, violations of a major electronic industry group’s code of conduct on all of the above, and allegations of under-aged labor.
• From Filipina migrant workers, “placement fees” far in excess of Taiwan regulations, with fees and deductions amounting to nearly a full year’s salary.