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ABSTRACT
In response to a stream of public criticism over this issue between 2013 and 2016, the Electronic Industry
Citizenship Coalition (an industry association of over 100 member companies including Apple) joined forces with
Stanford University's Rural Education Action Program (REAP) in an attempt to "protect student workers" and "raise
the quality of vocational education" in China13. [...]as major purchasers of computers and other products, they will
use their leverage with Apple to correct breaches of labour standards and compensate workers for any harm as a
result of breaches.
FULL TEXT
Apple is among the world's largest companies and has a supply chain to match, but does its claim to be strict on
supplier labour standards hold water?
iphonedigital/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc)
Apple released its 10th Supplier Responsibility Progress Report this March. "There's a right way to make products",
Apple proclaims. "It starts with the rights of the people who make them."1 Currently Apple has 346 suppliers in
China alone, more than those in Japan (126), the United States (69), Taiwan (41), Korea (28), Malaysia (23),
Thailand (19), the Philippines (19), and Vietnam (18) put together2. Are Chinese workers enjoying their rights in
Apple's supply chain? What responsibility does Apple have to the Chinese workers who make its products?
Apple boasts that its supplier code is "one of the strictest in the industry"3. In 2015, Apple conducted 640 audits
against its own standards, far surpassing the 39 audits it conducted in 20074. It reported that 97% of its audited
suppliers in 25 countries achieved compliance with its requirements of a "60-hour maximum workweek"5. In the
words of Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer reporting to company boss Tim Cook, the nearly 100%
compliance with working hours is "a number that is virtually unheard of in our industry"6.
But let us explain clearly that China's own legal standards are higher than Apple's requirements. Chinese law
stipulates a "40-hour regular workweek"7, which can be extended by a maximum of three hours a day or 36 hours a
month, and only when workers consent8. This translates to a maximum working week of no longer than 55 hours.
Yet Apple is boasting that it has a maximum of 60?
Worse still, evidence suggests that many workers work far more than Apple's 60 hours a week. A survey carried out
by China Labor Watch in October 2015 showed that 71% of the more than 1,000 workers sampled at Pegatron
Shanghai, one of Apple's major suppliers, worked more than 60 hours during any given week9. While workers at
Foxconn reported that, in the face of Apple deadlines, such overtime work was often compulsory.
Furthermore, under pressure from Apple and other brands, some of Apple's suppliers have turned to the fast
growing Chinese "student labour market" as a means to lower their production costs while enhancing labour
flexibility and increasing profits. Wistron, for example, recruited 2,000-3,000 "student interns" from four schools
during summer 201510. Interviews with those interns revealed that they were paid well below the local minimum
About the authors Jenny Chan is Lecturer in Sociology and Junior Research Fellow of Kellogg College at the
University of Oxford. She is co-author of 'Dying for an iPhone' (forthcoming) with Ngai Pun and Mark Selden. Olga
Martin-Ortega is Reader in Public International Law at the University of Greenwich, and leads the Business, Human
Rights and the Environment Research Group and the Electronics Hub of the International Learning Lab on Public
Procurement and Human Rights.
DETAILS
Location: China
Section: openDemocracy