April 20, 2024
BBC Goes Undercover at the Factories That Make Apple Products [Watch]

BBC Goes Undercover at the Factories That Make Apple Products [Watch]

Posted December 19, 2014 at 4:41pm by iClarified
BBC has aired Panorama: Apple's Broken Promises, an investigation into the treatment of workers in the Chinese factories that make Apple products.

The report found that Apple's promises to protect factory workers were routinely broken.

Apple is the most valuable brand on the planet, making products that everyone wants - but how are its workers treated when the world isn't looking? Panorama goes undercover in China to show what life is like for the workers making the iPhone 6. And it's not just the factories. Reporter Richard Bilton travels to Indonesia to find children working in some of the most dangerous mines in the world. But is the tin they dig out by hand finding its way into Apple's products?


BBC says it found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories.

The news outlet was able to capture video of exhausted workers falling asleep during lengthy 12 hour shifts. One reported had to work 18 days straight despite repeatedly requesting a day off. Another reported who worked up to 16 hours in one shift said: "Every time I got back to the dormitories, I wouldn't want to move. Even if I was hungry I wouldn't want to get up to eat. I just wanted to lie down and rest. I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress."

Apple strongly disagreed with the program's conclusions stating, "We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions. We work with suppliers to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done."

Take a look at the video below...


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Comments (18)
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jos1
jos1 - December 20, 2014 at 2:29pm
1. Applicants are readymade acolytes  2. New employees are indoctrinated  3. Employees aren't allowed to speak to the media  4. Apple is immersed in weird lingo  5. Rapture gives way to disillusionment Welcome to the Cult!
Sheesh...
Sheesh... - December 20, 2014 at 12:23pm
All those folks and my phone is still on back order.
iProService
iProService - December 20, 2014 at 10:57am
Unless we are mistaken, are not Apple's products designed by Apple in the USA but actually assumed and built at third party factories in China owned and operated by Foxconn
iProService
iProService - December 20, 2014 at 10:59am
The same Foxconn who also assembles and manufactured goods for various other leading companies, not just Apple?
Mannie Priya
Mannie Priya - December 19, 2014 at 10:26pm
We should investigate all the suppliers for Google, Blackberry, HTC, etc. while we're at it. I'm sure they'll find the same, if not worse, conditions.
Truth
Truth - December 19, 2014 at 10:22pm
Foxconn today is having labor problems in India as reported by the Times of India. Why isn't the documentary about Foxconn? Again, who would watch a documentary about Foxconn who make the products for all gadget makers around the globe? No one, hence the desperate need for a globally recognizable villain to pin it all on. The BBC stated that Foxconn increased wages and bettered conditions and that those measures saved lives. Yet why wasn't Apple credited for pressuring Foxconn into those new measures. Apple's Tim Cook went to China during this period to start new programs to better conditions for workers. It didn't happen out of the goodness of Foxconn's heart.
venicej
venicej - December 19, 2014 at 9:13pm
OMG, people napping on breaks. call the police. have these people never seen a real production facitlity?
mackan1
mackan1 - December 19, 2014 at 8:00pm
Hold on it is not apple at fault but the company falcon or what ever it is called.
mackan1
mackan1 - December 19, 2014 at 8:02pm
Hold on it is not Apple but falcon or what the company is called that they hair to make make the phone. You know apple is giving them millions but 80% is the money will be going to the bosses of the company rather then the work force.
Why only Apple
Why only Apple - December 19, 2014 at 7:17pm
Do you think other manufacturers are better? HP, Dell, Samsung, HTC and many other products their goods in the same, and sometimes in worse factories of these. One of the few tech companies that transparent reporting on its production process is now on target, but we turn a blind eye to all the others. Give me a break. If only you knew in what conditions the vast majority of our clothes and shoes are made, many of you would walk naked.
Tiffany1234
Tiffany1234 - December 19, 2014 at 9:11pm
Amen to that!
AppleSux
AppleSux - December 19, 2014 at 6:38pm
Thank you BBC for opening our eye's Apple should be shut down and never speak off ever again
aa2007
aa2007 - December 19, 2014 at 6:04pm
I'm ashamed I have ever bought any Apple product. I will stop all future purchase orders for apple. Apple will be banned at my company. I'm disgust by Apple
gamerscul9870
gamerscul9870 - December 19, 2014 at 5:57pm
Who cares what that ever involved forst off?
Hahahaaa
Hahahaaa - December 19, 2014 at 5:51pm
Ohh come on!!! This is soooo CGI!!
justabrake
justabrake - December 19, 2014 at 5:11pm
If anyone cared nobody would buy an iPhone, so those little children mining the world doesn't care about them.
Judge Dreed
Judge Dreed - December 19, 2014 at 5:05pm
This is absolutely dumb, the supply chain does what it want to get the supplies. If I pick up Aluminum can from walking down the streets so that I can sell it to factory, are you going to video tape me and tell Pepsi or Coke that they're not being responsible? The BBC needs to clarify the video before they try the Media BS.
stevenlacross
stevenlacross - December 19, 2014 at 8:22pm
First off, The side of the road isn't going to kill you if you pick up a can off it, and second, if your only job was to pick up cans off the side of the road and you had to do it 16 hours a day and slept the rest of the time, you'd want to commit suicide too. And third, i bet these people would prefer this that to live on the streets in Chicago during the winter.
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