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Apple reveals some plants using child labour
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Monday, 01 March 2010 11:44
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SHANGHAI – The iPod you have just bought may well have been made using child labour.
Apple has admitted that some of its factories, many of them in China, have hired at least eleven 15-year-old children to work in three factories in the last year.
The discovery was made following an internal audit.
Apple said the sites no longer used child workers or that they were no longer underage.
Most Apple factories in Asia
The exact location of the factories making its iPhones, iPods and computers have not been identified. Apple has factories which supply parts in Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, the Czech Republic and the Philippines, but most of its products are assembled in China.
The audit also found one facility had tried to hide evidence of employing underage labour, while two others had falsified records relating to the number of working hours and days of rest employees were receiving.
A Daily Mail report said Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories which abuse workers and impose harsh conditions on workers
Last week, 62 workers at a factory which makes parts for Apple and Nokia were hospitalised after being poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical used in technology which can cause muscular degeneration and blurred eyesight.
Contract companies the offenders
The company has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is in Suzhou, China.
A spokesman for Wintek, which runs the factory, said that almost all of affected staff were back at work.
The audit report revealed that at least 55 of factories which produced Apple goods were ignoring rules that staff must not work more than 60 hours a week.
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Last Updated on Monday, 01 March 2010 15:33 |
