China Labour Watch cites underage labour, discrimination, low wages and women's rights violations
A Chinese company which manufactures Apple products has committed dozens of labour code violations, the latest investigation from the worker rights watchdog, China Labour Watch (CLW), has revealed.
On July 29, New York-based CLW released its investigation into three Pegatron Group factories, headquartered in Taiwan. The results indicated that the company — which manufactures iPads and iPhones and has a combined labour force of more than 70,000 employees — is guilty of at least 86 labour rights violations, 36 of which are legal and 50 of which are ethical, according to the report.
Those violations were judged against a rubric which includes hiring discrimination, women’s rights, underage labour, contract violations, insufficient worker training, excessive working hours, difficulty in taking leave, and abuse by management, among others.
“Conditions at these factories are so poor that most workers refuse to continue working for long,” said Li Qiang, executive director at CLW, adding that in a period of two weeks, investigators saw 30 of 110 new hires at one of the factories leave.
The investigation was launched in March, and involved undercover investigations and almost 200 interviews with workers outside of the factories.
Apple has reportedly conducted 15 audits at the Pegatron factories since 2007 to ensure working conditions are up to code.
