Apple Computers Reject Slave Labour Claim

Claims that Apple i-Pod production lines are staffed by workers forced into long working hours in excess of some 60 hours per week have been rejected by the company.

The computer firm recently sent an audit team to its unnamed plant in China after a British newspaper published a story alleging poor working practices. They found labour conditions at its iPod plant in China were such that workers did more than 60 hours a week a third of the time, and worked more than six consecutive days 25% of the time.

Apple said the hours were "excessive" and said its supplier would now be enforcing a "normal" 60-hour week.

But the report has been criticised by a leading international trade union organization for not being independently evaluated.

Janek Kuczkiewicz, director of human and trade union rights at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), said he was not impressed by the report.

Quoted o the BBC News on line website, Mr Kuczkiewicz said:
"We are not impressed either by the report or by the findings of Apple. Apple interviewed just 100 people out of the estimated 30,000 iPod workers. "We do not know the conditions in which the interviews were held. We have serious reservations about the report."

The audit team said staff earned "at least the local minimum wage" and that half of the 100 people it interviewed earned above that amount.

Apple did not specify what the minimum wage for the area was but the original report in the British press claimed that staff earned as little as £27 a month.

The computer firm announced revenue of $4.37bn in its last quarterly statement, selling eight million iPods in the last three months.

Mr Kuczkiewicz said Apple had not asked workers what they preferred - a decent wage or minimum wage and overtime.

"We believe it is the workers' role to monitor standards. That has not happened at the Apple plant in China. We would like to remind Apple there are other labour standards - freedom from discrimination, freedom of association and freedom to bargain collectively."

The company discovered two instances of staff being made to stand to attention as a form of disciplinary punishment. "While we did not find this practice to be widespread, Apple has a zero tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of workers that could be interpreted as harsh," the company said.

The supplier has started an "aggressive manager and employee training program" to ensure this is not repeated, said Apple.

Source: BBC News, Apple.

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