An undercover investigation by the BBC ’s Panorama team has found that Apple is still fail to protect those that shape at the manufacturing plant of its portion manufacturers .
The Apple ’s Broken Promises docudrama found that staff at the Pegatron factories routinely were encouraged to exploit unhealthful minute construction twist , while return with underage proletarian and dormitory conditions were vulgar too .
One surreptitious worker was made to work 18 days in a row , while another found it was n’t unusual to work 16 time of day sack . One reporter found 12 worker sharing a unmarried dormitory room .
Elsewhere in the composition , the squad travelled to an Indonesian mine where children were found working in dangerous conditions . The reporters claim that tin can from illegal minelaying operations may also be making its direction into Apple ’s products .
Apple offered this statement in response to the BBC ’s investigation :
We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to see fair and safe working conditions .
We work on with suppliers to handle shortfalls , and we see uninterrupted and significant improvement , but we know our work is never done .
Update : The Telegraph reportsthat Tim Cook is ‘ deeply offended ’ by allegation made by BBC ’s Panorama program . Apple senior vice president of functioning Jeff Williams has written the following letter to Apple staff in the UK .
UK Team ,
As you know , Apple is dedicated to the advancement of human rights and equality around the world . We are honest about the challenges we face and we work hard to make certain that the great unwashed who make our products are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve .
Last dark , the BBC ’s Panorama programme call off those values into question . Like many of you , Tim and I were deep offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a hope to the workers in our supplying chain or misguide our customers in any direction .
I ’d like to give you facts and perspective , all of which we shared with the BBC in advance , but were distinctly missing from their programme .
Panorama show some of the shameful conditions around tin minelaying in Indonesia . Apple has publicly stated that can from Indonesia stop up in our product , and some of that tin likely comes from illegal mine . Here are the fact :
Tens of thousands of artisanal miners are sell tin through many middleman to the smeltery who supply to part suppliers who trade to the earthly concern . The government is not address the issue , and there is widespread putrescence in the unexploited supply mountain chain . Our team visited the same parts of Indonesia confabulate by the BBC , and of track we are appall by what ’s going on there .
Apple has two choices : We could verify all of our suppliers grease one’s palms tin from smelters outside of Indonesia , which would credibly be the easiest thing for us to do and would certainly shield us from criticism . But it would be the faineant and cowardly path , because it would do nothing to improve the situation for Indonesian proletarian or the environment since Apple consumes a lilliputian fraction of the Sn mined there . We chose the second path , which is to stay engaged and endeavor to drive a corporate solution .
We spearheaded the creation of an Indonesian Tin Working Group with other technology fellowship . Apple is push to find and implement a system that hold smelters accountable so we can shape artisanal mining in Indonesia . It could be an approaching such as “ sacking and tagging ” lawfully mined material , which has been successful over meter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . We are looking to drive exchangeable results in Indonesia , which is the ripe affair to do .
Panorama also made claims about our commitment to working condition in our factories . We have intercourse of no other company doing as much as Apple does to ensure fairish and safe influence conditions , to discover and investigate problem , to fix and follow through when issues arise , and to provide transparence into the operations of our suppliers .
I want you to know that more than 1400 of your Apple coworkers are stationed in China to carry off our manufacturing surgical process . They are in the factory constantly — talented engineers and manager who are also compassionate people , trained to talk up when they see safety risk or mistreatment . We also have a team of experts dedicated entirely to drive compliance with ourSupplier Code of Conductacross our vast supply mountain chain .
In 2014 alone , our Supplier Responsibility squad completed 630 comprehensive , in - person audits deep into our supplying chain . These audits include typeface - to - typeface interviews with prole , away from their handler , in their native linguistic process . Sometimes critics point to the discovery of job as grounds that the physical process is n’t form . The realness is that we find out violation in every audit we have ever performed , no matter how sophisticated the party we ’re auditing . We find problem , we drive improvement , and then we evoke the ginmill .
Panorama ’s report implied that Apple is n’t improving working condition . Let me tell you , nothing could be further from the true statement . Here are just a few lesson :
Several years ago , the Brobdingnagian majority of workers in our provision chain worked in overindulgence of 60 minute , and 70 + time of day workweek were typical . After years of irksome progress and manufacture excuses , Apple decided to lash out the job by tracking the weekly hours of over one million workers , drive disciplinary activeness with our suppliers and publishing the result on our website monthly — something no other company had ever done . It takes significant effort , and we have to weed out untrue coverage , but it ’s ferment . This year , our suppliers have achieved an norm of 93 % compliance with our 60 - hour point of accumulation . We can still do better . And we will .
Our auditors were the first to identify and crack down on a ring of unscrupulous labor broker who were defy worker ’ passports and hale them to pay exorbitant fees . To appointment , we have helped workers recoup $ 20 million in excessive payment like these .
We ’ve hold out far beyond auditing and corrective actions by make educational programme for doer in the same facility where they make our products . More than 750,000 masses have taken reward of these college - spirit level courses and enrichment computer programme , and the feedback we get from scholarly person is invigorate .
I will not dive into every progeny raised by Panorama in this note , but you may remain assured that we take all allegations seriously , and we investigate every claim . We know there are a stack of consequence out there , and our piece of work is never done . We will not repose until every somebody in our provision chain is do by with the regard and dignity they merit .
If you ’d like to learn more about our Supplier Responsibility program , I boost you and our customer to chaffer our website atapple.com/supplierresponsibility .
Thanks for your meter and your support .
Jeff
The report card airs tonight in the UJ at 9 pm on BBC One . [ BBC ]
This postoriginally appearedonGizmodo UK , which is bolt up the tidings in a dissimilar timezone .
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