Apple Admits Some Of Their Suppliers Abuse Their Workers

Awful!
Apple has has been fielding some heavy criticism after it was discovered that some of their suppliers have overworked and underpaid their employees.
The workers at a Chinese factory that produces iPhones recently threatened mass suicide if the plant, owned by Taiwan’s Foxconn group, didn’t treat them fairly.
Apple requires that their suppliers adhere to a maximum 60-hour work week and a minimum one day off per week.
Unfortunately, doesn’t look like Apple was keeping track of who was doing what because one-third of their suppliers were negligent in following these practices.
But, since the scandal broke, they divulged a full list of their suppliers on Friday and said that they would allow an outside labor rights group to investigate and monitor them.
In a statement, Apple said:

“We will continue regular audits and go even deeper into our supply chain to ensure that there are no underage workers at any Apple supplier.
To the best of our knowledge, Apple is the only company in the electronics industry that mandates reimbursement of excessive recruitment fees.”

It’s a little shady (actually, A LOT shady) of Apple to keep their list of suppliers a secret for so long. It only makes us wonder what else they could be hiding.
Thankfully, they’ve come to their senses though and they’re now being more public with who is producing their products and what’s going on behind closed doors. Maybe this will make huge companies think twice before putting the mighty dollar ahead of basic human rights such as, oh you know, the mistreatment of their employees.
[Image via AP Images.]