HardwareLook

• Author: Adam
• Published: Jan 16, 2012

Apple Reveals Supplier Details Due To Employees Mistreatment and Suicide

Due to the large amount of criticism Apple has received over the treatment of its employees, they have released a list of suppliers in a bid to address the situation.

Recently criticism was revealed that Apple’s employers at its Foxconn supplier committed suicide, normally the company keeps all of its suppliers discrete at this precious time before the release of new Apple gear.

In the post, Apple says that: "In 2011, we conducted 229 audits throughout our supply chain — an 80 percent increase over 2010 — including more than 100 first-time audits. We continue to expand our program to reach deeper into our supply base, and this year we added more detailed and specialized audits that focus on safety and the environment."

It also says it has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to child labour, and stated: "In 2011, we broadened our age verification program and saw dramatic improvements in hiring practices by our suppliers."

Apple seem to be taking more measurement to make sure that they improve standards at their facilities, after finding out the company had five factories with under-age workers employed. Also that 93 of its factories had exceeded working hours.

This press coverage is not good for a multi-billion dollar company. The question is if this is happening at Apple’s facilities, the largest company in the world, what are other companies standards like, I don’t know, but I’m sure investigations will be made all around the industry, looking into all major tech companies.