Apple for the first time (to its credit!) released a list of suppliers today along with a compliance report that shows only 38-percent are abiding by rules on work hours limits.
According to Apple’s audit, at 93 facilities more than 50 percent of people worked more than its limit of 60 hours per week. At 90 facilities it found people worked more than 6 consecutive days at least once per month, and 37 facilities failed to ensure that workers took at least 1 day off in out of every 7. In response Apple began weekly tracking of working hours at facilities where excessive work hours were commonplace.
All of which is to say, this is quite bad, and more than a little depressing. But look, Apple isn’t the only guilty party here. Those 300 workers who threatened mass suicide last week were cranking out X-Boxes, for example. I’m glad to see Apple making this information public, and an attempt to do something about it. I’d love to see more companies doing the same.
https://kotaku.com/report-mass-suicide-threats-at-xbox-360-plant-update-5874706
Because if Apple is going public with this, and only 38-percent of its suppliers are in compliance, there’s no telling how bad things are in the deep dark holes where most of our electronics come from. [Apple via Wall Street Journal]
