Apple - Supplier Responsibility - Code of Conduct - Labor and Human Rights
Monthly reporting to address excessive work hours.
In our effort to end the industry practice of excessive overtime, we’re working closely with our suppliers to manage employee working hours. Weekly data collected in January 2012 on more than 500,000 workers employed by our suppliers showed 84 percent compliance with the 60-hour work week specified in our code. In February 2012, compliance with the 60-hour work week among 500,000 workers at those suppliers increased to 89 percent, with workers averaging 48 hours per week. That’s a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better. We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis.
Take a look at the above report. Apple is providing monthly updates on the progress they are making. It’s important to note that conditions improved in February even though Apple was ramping up production of the new iPad at that time. Apple is clearly way ahead of its competitors in addressing labor and human rights violations. It may be time to focus some of the outrage about Chinese factory conditions on the multitude of other tech companies that are not doing anything at all to improve conditions in China.