Yahoo Finance Probe: iPhone factory workers overworked, underpaid
A new report from China Labor Watch alleges that workers at Apple's supplier Pegatron are working 11-hour shifts, six days a week, for $1.63 (US$1.50) an hour in order to turn out a less expensive version of the iPhone.
With 20 minutes of each shift unpaid, each worker earns a total of $291 (US$268) a month before overtime — less than half the local average of $831 (US$764) and far below the basic living wage necessary to survive in Shanghai, one of China's most expensive cities. As a result, employees must put in long overtime hours.
The New York-based rights group, which sent undercover investigators into three factories and conducted nearly 200 interviews with workers, says it found at least 86 labor rights violations.
Average weekly working hours in the three factories were between 66 hours and 69 hours, a direct violation of China's 49-hour statutory limit, China Labor Watch said. The group claimed that workers were forced to sign forms indicating that their overtime hours were less than the actual levels.
The report also alleges that over 10,000 underage and student workers, from 16 to 20 years of age, do the same work as adult employees, with some students paid lower wages due to schools' internship fees.
Claims 'new to us', says Apple
Apple has been in close contact with the group for several months, yet the report contains "claims that are new to us," and those will be probed immediately, Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Apple, said in a phone interview with Bloomberg.
Apple became the first technology company to join the Washington-based Fair Labor Association last year after criticism by human-rights organisations about conditions at suppliers including Foxconn Technology Group. Pegatron factories "are even worse than those at Foxconn," CLW Executive Director Li Qiang said in a statement today.
"We will investigate these new claims thoroughly, ensure that corrective actions are taken where needed and report any violations of our code of conduct," Ms Wu said. "We will not tolerate deviations from our code."
Cupertino, California-based Apple has conducted 15 audits at Pegatron facilities since 2007, covering more than 130,000 workers making the company's products, Ms Wu said. The most recent survey in June found that Pegatron employees making Apple products worked 46 hours per week on average, she said.
Pegatron will investigate the allegations, President and Chief Executive Officer Jason Cheng said in an e-mailed statement. Pegatron hasn't seen the China Labor Watch report, Pegatron plants in China haven't hired any underage workers, and weekly work hours during the past two to three months have averaged 45-50 hours, Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin said by phone.
Spotlight on labour conditions
Working conditions at Apple's suppliers have come under the spotlight in recent years following a series of suicides in 2010 at Foxconn, which manufactured products for companies such as Apple, HP and Sony.
Scrutiny of labour conditions in developing nations has intensified in the wake of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, which left 1,129 people dead.
Last month, a number of Bangladeshi workers interviewed by the ABC claimed that they had been physically abused and threatened while working in sweatshops used by well-known Australian retailers including Rivers, Coles, Target and Kmart.
Garment production for Australian companies in Bangladesh has increased 1,500 per cent since 2008.
But according to a survey conducted by not-for-profit aid organisation Oxfam, almost 70 per cent of Australians would pay more for their clothes if it meant workers were given an acceptable wage and worked in safe factories.
With input from Bloomberg and ABC
