One of Apple’s supply chain iPhone manufacturers is under fire for unsafe and illegal labor practices — and for once it’s not Foxconn.
This time the company is Pegatron, which worker rights group China Labor Watch says has not cleaned up its act, despite Apple claiming that it would investigate it back in 2013 after 86 labour rights violations were identified at three of its factories.
Pegatron is said to manufacture around one quarter of iPhones.
According to CLB, workers at Pegatron’s iPhones factories only receive around six hours of safety training, as opposed to the 24 hours they are required to undergo as dictated by Chinese law.
The worker rights group also alleges that managers at Pegatron tried to deceive Apple’s own workforce labor standards by telling employees how to cheat on tests in order to show a level of understanding that they don’t possess.
China Labor Watch doesn’t let Apple off the hook, though. Its report also suggests that Apple’s targeted 60-hour work week pushes people to work illegal amounts of overtime by Chinese law, while also making profits by participating in a system which exploits workers.
“A portion of Apple’s historical profits is squeezed out of the low pay and illegally poor working conditions of more than a million Chinese workers,” the group says.
Pegatron previously filed a statement with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, pledging to inspect all negative claims carried in the report and implement improvements to make sure these problems are solved. Last year, the company estimated it brought in consolidated revenues of $33.3 billion, mainly due to shipments of Apple’s iPhone and iPad models.
Source: FT
