As the Apple supplier which came under fire a few years ago when one of its 15 year old workers died of pneumonia, iPhone manufacturer Pegatron has opened its doors to the media in an effort to show how much things have changed.
In the process, it sheds light on one of the hidden sides of iPhone production — and the means by which companies like Pegatron try and crack down on supply chain leaks about future Apple devices.
The lucky media outlet given a tour of Pegatron’s factory was Bloomberg, which was shown one of the company’s factories on the outskirts of Shanghai, where around 50,000 people work assembling iPhones in a space equal to around 90 football fields.
The article notes that Pegatron now employs face scanners and swipe badges at security turnstiles so that workers can clock in. Strict ID checks are enforced to make sure that workers don’t work too much overtime — with overtime hours capped at 80 hours per month, or 60 hours in total (including both regular and overtime) per week.
If workers hit a certain overtime threshold, or have clocked in six days in a row, an automated alert is sent to their manager, and they will not be allowed through the gates to the factory floor.
“Manufacturing is not a sin,” said Denese Yao, who oversees Pegatron’s business relationship with Apple. “People think we’re just squeezing everything out of the workers. We need to let them know what is an efficient and responsible working environment.”
According to Pegatron, since its new ID badges were introduced compliance with overtime is close to 100 percent, “with only a handful of exceptions stemming from engineers working on emergency repairs.”
There is also heavy use of metal detecters to try and “sniff out” camera equipment which can be used to leak pictures of unreleased new products.
Bloomberg claims that, including overtime, take-home pay for workers building iPhones averages 4,200 yuan to 5,500 yuan ($650-$850) per month. An iPhone 6 in China costs 4,488 yuan.
Pegatron isn’t the only company to try and improve its working conditions, particularly after prompting from Apple. Last year, Foxconn opened its sprawling Shenzhen factory to U.S. journalists — showing off its university-style campus, employee swimming pools, and 24-hour hotline for counseling.
In its latest supplier report, published last month, Apple said that its work-hour compliance rating hit an all-new high.
“In 2015, work-hour compliance among our suppliers reached 97 percent, a number that is virtually unheard of in our industry,” wrote Apple COO Jeff Williams. “Since 2008, more than 9.2 million workers have been trained on their rights, over 1.4 million people have participated in Apple educational programs, and more than $25.6 million in excessive recruitment fees have been repaid to foreign contract workers by suppliers as a result of our efforts.”
You can see photos from Bloomberg‘s Pegatron tour here.
Source: Bloomberg
