FINANCIAL TIMES: Apple sought to stem long-running criticism of its failure to ensure adequate conditions for Chinese workers making its iPhone and iPad as it threw its weight behind an independent report that detailed multiple abuses of labour codes.
Hours after Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, toured a Chinese production line of Foxconn, a main supplier, the Fair Labor Association said that the contract manufacturer had agreed to improve working hours, pay, union representation and health and safety conditions for its 1.2m workers….
The FLA said its month-long audit of three Foxconn factories and a survey of 35,500 workers had found at least 50 “serious and pressing non-compliances” with its own workplace code of conduct and Chinese labour law. It said that employees were working excessive overtime and faced health and safety risks, noting blocked exits and an explosion at one factory… (more)
