Fair Labor Association Delivers Findings on Two Apple Suppliers

The Fair Labor Association has published a new report today revealing its findings at two Apple facilities operated by supply partner Quanta in Changshu and Shanghai.

The result of the report found a decent amount of violations at both facilities, including recruitment policies, health and safety issues and underage labor policies. The FLA has made recommendations to Apple on how it can improve working conditions in order to fall in line with local laws, and the FLA's own code of conduct.


Apple has responded to the findings, noting that is has already taken some action to address some the issue presented in the report.

Our suppliers must live up to the toughest standards in the industry if they want to keep doing business with Apple, which is the first and only technology company to be admitted to the Fair Labor Association. We are committed to providing safe and fair working conditions for everyone in our supply chain.

Last year we conducted 451 comprehensive, in-person audits deep into our supply chain so we could uncover problems and work with our suppliers to fix them. We track and report the weekly working hours for more than 1 million workers, and our 18-month Apple Supplier EHS Academy training program is raising the bar for environment, health and safety management in the industry.

The Quanta facilities inspected by the FLA last year were included in our 2014 Supplier Responsibility report, which we released in February. Our own experts have audited these sites 16 times, most recently last month.

In the year since the FLA’s visit, we have worked closely with Quanta to drive meaningful improvements in areas identified by both the FLA and Apple. Apple conducted four follow-up inspections on top of the annual audits of both facilities, to ensure the needed corrections are in place.

This year, through the end of July, Quanta has averaged 86 percent compliance with our 60-hour workweek. Excessive overtime is not in anyone’s best interest, and we will continue to work closely with Quanta and our other suppliers to prevent it.

Apple joined the Fair Labor Association back in 2012 and since then has improved its working conditions. Apple also maintains its supplier responsibility reports, ensuring facilities are up to code.

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