With its stock near a record high and its latest iPhone expected to be introduced on Tuesday next week, Apple Inc is facing new accusations of violations of labor rights and workplace safety at a supplier in China.
The allegations involve employees at a factory in Suqian owned by Taiwanese firm Catcher Technology Co (可成), that makes metal casings for Apple iPads and for other consumer electronics companies.
The employees are made to work excessive overtime and handle toxic chemicals without proper protective clothing, according to a report released on Thursday by environmental nonprofit group Green America and New York-based labor rights group China Labor Watch.
Apple, like Samsung Electronics Co and several other multinational companies, has previously faced scrutiny over the working conditions at the factories in China where its products are made.
However, the allegations in the latest report suggest that the company might need to increase its vigilance of the 200 major global suppliers that account for 97 percent of Apple’s component costs.
In a statement on Thursday, Apple said its most recent annual audit of the Suqian plant in May had “found some concrete areas for improvement in Catcher’s operations, and we worked with Catcher to develop a corrective action plan.”
Apple had scheduled a follow-up visit to the plant next month, but dispatched a team immediately to investigate the allegations in the new report, Apple spokesman Chris Gaither said in a statement.
An undercover investigation by China Labor Watch at the Suqian plant last month found that fire exits were locked and that flammable aluminum-magnesium alloy dust and shavings filled the air and littered the floors of some workshops.
Investigators also found that employees were forced to work as many as 100 hours of overtime a month and failed to receive the social insurance payments required under Chinese law, according to the report.
It said the plant made aluminum covers for an upcoming iPad and parts for the iPhone 5.
Workers at the plant, about 480km northwest of Shanghai in Jiangsu Province, were also required by Catcher to sign forms saying they had completed safety training, even though they had received none, according to the report.
China Labor Watch privately raised concerns about conditions at the Suqian plant with Apple in April last year, after an earlier undercover investigation.
According to the group, Apple responded at the time by conducting its own inspection, after which it said that Catcher would make changes, especially those related to occupational safety.
“The health and safety violations found in this factory two years in a row are startling,” Green America campaigns director Elizabeth O’Connell said.
Apple’s audits showed that the plant’s aluminum-polishing systems exceeded international safety standards, Apple’s Gaither wrote, while a fire safety inspection last week corrected some of the problems identified in the report, like unblocking corridors and fire exits. He said that the plant made cases for the iPad and MacBook but did not mention iPhone parts.
Regarding the allegation of excessive overtime, Gaither said Catcher had averaged 95 percent compliance, as of the end of last month, with the maximum 60-hour workweek that Apple enforces.
“We are deeply concerned about the claims made by China Labor Watch, and we take the report very seriously,” Greater Tainan-based Catcher Technology said in a statement on Thursday. “We are committed to following Apple’s supplier code of conduct and will investigate thoroughly.”
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six