Apple’s China iPod report
p2pnet.net News:- Workers building Apple iPods, “mostly young women from rural areas of China” labouring in, “15-hour shifts, were, housed in dormitories from which outsiders are banned, and regularly pay about half their wages for room and board charges, said a UK newspaper in June
Now, in a report, Apple has admitted there were indeed, violations to our Code of Conduct but Janek Kuczkiewicz, director of human and trade union rights at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), isn’t impressed, says the BBC.
Apple talks in glowing terms of conditions at the Foxconn facility in China, calling it a ‘campus’.
It, includes factories, employee housing, banks, a post office, a hospital, supermarkets, and a variety of recreational facilities including soccer fields, a swimming pool, TV lounges and Internet cafes, says Apple. Ten cafeterias are also located throughout the campus offering a variety of menu choices such as fresh vegetables, beef, seafood, rice, poultry, and stir-fry noodles. In addition, employees have access to 13 different restaurants on campus. Employees were pleased with the variety and quality of food offerings.
However, “Apple interviewed just 100 people out of the estimated 30,000 iPod workers, the BBC has Kuczkiewicz saying. “We do not know the conditions in which the interviews were held. We have serious reservations about the report.”
And in a CYA action, Apple says it’s hired Verité, “an internationally recognized leader in workplace standards dedicated to ensuring that people around the world work under safe, fair and legal conditions”and will, “complete audits of all final assembly suppliers of Mac and iPod products in 2006″.
In other news, Apple has been added to Nasdaq’s list of “delinquent companies”, moving it closer to, a potential de-listing from the stock market following the emergence of irregularities linked to stock option grants, says The Times Online, going on:
The company said last week that it would be forced to delay its third-quarter results as it presses on with an internal probe into the granting of options.
Also See:
Apple iPods – iPod sweat-shop accusation, June 15, 2006
Apple – Report on iPod Manufacturing, August 17, 2006
BBC – Apple admits excessive iPod hours, August 18, 2006
The Times Online – Nasdaq brands Apple ‘delinquent’, August 18, 2006
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