Is Apple still using child labor?
In 2020, several publications found alleged incidents of forced labor in Apple's supply chain. In the company's report today, Apple says it found no evidence of forced labor or underage child labor. This is down from one case of child labor identified in the previous year's report.
Apple has finally come clean and admitted that its biggest manufacturing partner is employing school kids for up to 11 hours a day to make their ultra-expensive iPhone X.
Apple have opened the doors to their Chinese 'sweatshop' factories where employees are paid as little as £1.12 an hour. Many of the staff perform monotonous tasks like wiping down screens or shaving aluminium from the edge of the Apple logo for ten tedious hours at a time.
Avary Holding, which makes circuit boards for Apple devices in the Chinese city of Huai'an, added 400 Xinjiang labor workers to its workforce between 2019 and 2020 at one of its factories, per the report.
But despite the long hours of hard work, many Apple employees seem to think the pros outweigh the cons. Based on hundreds of reviews on Glassdoor and a few Quora posts written by former employees, it sounds like Apple treats its employees extremely well. Here's a look at why people love working at Apple.
Apple's Prevention of Modern Slavery Standards state, “Supplier shall not traffic persons or use any form of slave, forced, bonded, indentured, or prison labor." In 2012, we extended the application of our Code and Standards to our services suppliers, including AppleCare contact centers, logistics, and repair centers.
“Tesla does not, and will not, tolerate the use of slave or child labor in the manufacturing of its products,” says its conflict-minerals policy.
However, the most surprising fact is that while the Walt Disney Company sells products that are catered towards making children happy, the company actually uses sweatshops and child labor to produce their products in developing countries.
Tech companies Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla are accused of understanding the working conditions in the country's mines and of willingly allowing the exploitation of children, as well as the dangerous working conditions that lead to hundreds of deaths every year, as well as many more serious accidents.
The computer giant company, Apple, has admitted that child labor was used at the factories that built its computers, iPods and mobile phones. At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories, which supply Apple.
Are AirPods made in sweatshops?
Apple's iPhone and AirPods may be being manufactured by Chinese slave labour. An investigation by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has implicated Apple in profiting from prisoner slave labour in China.
Apple conducts business ethically, honestly, and in full compliance with the law. We believe that how we conduct ourselves is as critical to Apple's success as making the best products in the world.
Judge Carl J. Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia has dismissed claims against prominent technology companies Apple, Google, Tesla, Dell and Microsoft related to child labor. The lawsuit concerned the role of these companies in cobalt mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1. Young Labor. Amazon does not tolerate the use of child labor. Suppliers are required to engage workers who are: (i) 15 years old, (ii) the age of completion of compulsory education, or (iii) the minimum age to work in the country where work is performed, whichever is greater.
Plus, free apples!
Even so, several current Apple employees in Cupertino were enthused with the fact that the company supplies free Apples for its workers. Plus, free apples!
Apple employees don't get free food — but they do get subsidized cafes. Apple is one of the tech giants that does not offer its employees free food (with the exception of free dinner for iOS or OS X team members) but there are multiple subsidized cafes.
Taking a conservative estimate of (12 hours/day, 30 days per month) workers earn approximately 10.13 yuan/hour, or roughly $1.62 per hour. This is less than half the recommended living wage of about 3.77 per hour.
A few weeks after Apple started requiring workers to spend at least a couple of days in the office, many employees are unhappy. Seventy-six percent of Apple workers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with Apple's return-to-office policy that was implemented after the COVID pandemic started waning.
Nike has admitted it cannot guarantee that its products will not be made using child labour in a report designed to address the accusations that have plagued the company.
Nike is one of the largest companies that use sweatshops and child slave labor. Nike has sweatshops all over the world. In the 1970s, Nike's shoes were mostly made in South Korea and Taiwan, with some factories still in the United States.
Does H&M use child labor?
H&M and Gap industries are both terrible companies because they both uses child labor.
Nestlé's code of conduct prohibits the use of child labour in its supply chain...
Through the years, Elon Musk gained huge popularity in the media and online. There are also several reports suggesting that the billionaire was actually born into a wealthy family and his father owned an emerald mine.
The Republic of Congo, which supplies the majority of the world's cobalt, uses children to mine the material in unsafe conditions, with many laborers killed or maimed by tunnel collapses.
Starbucks responded on its website by pledging "zero tolerance" to child labor, claiming the farms had not recently been used by the firm. It also committed to more independent inspections of coffee plantations and support to workers.
Major chocolate companies like Nestle, Hershey's, and Mars have been called to task time and time again for the use of child labor and slavery in their supply chains. For years, these companies have pledged to eradicate this problem and for years they have come up short on their promises.
Adidas yesterday denied the vast majority of the allegations. "These allegations are based on old facts. We don't use child labour and we pay above the minimum wage," Jan Runau, the company spokesman, said. "We have nothing to hide and we are confident that our suppliers are following our business practices."
TEXT messages have overtaken our lives. Whether it's a friendship or a new potential love interest, it seems we have become slaves to our phones. We use the time it takes for someone to text you back as a barometer for how interested or important we are to them.
The Fairphone 3 is arguably the most sustainable phone you can buy, and that's without even looking at the firm's efforts to source all materials and manufacture the phone in as ethical manner as possible.
As we make progress toward these ambitious goals, we continue to source 3TG and other minerals, such as cobalt, responsibly, while working to improve conditions in and around mining communities, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (“DRC”) and adjoining countries.
How are Apple workers treated?
Apple believes all workers in our supply chain deserve a fair and ethical workplace. Workers must be treated with the utmost dignity and respect, and Apple Suppliers shall uphold the highest standards of human rights.
Criticism of Apple includes allegations of unethical business practices such as anti-competitive behavior, rash litigation, dubious tax tactics, the use of sweatshop labor, misleading warranties and insufficient data security, and concerns about environmental destruction.
According to a Jan. 25, New York Times report, the Foxconn Technology factory, where Apple manufactures many of their products, has repeatedly been criticized for ethics violations and socially irresponsible working conditions.
However, when it comes to making an environmental choice, there is only one winner: Apple. According to a Greenpeace report, Samsung are amongst the wort offenders when it comes down to environmental impact. Samsung is really bad for renewable energy policies.
Apple may seem like it's recycling more, but the actual amounts of rare earth, tungsten, tin, and gold are minute compared to the plastic and other materials being used in their iPhones. Meanwhile, Samsung is ahead on using 100% recycled packaging materials, and eliminating all plastic within its smartphone boxes.
Apple conducts business ethically, honestly, and in full compliance with the law. We believe that how we conduct ourselves is as critical to Apple's success as making the best products in the world.
The most common agricultural goods listed are sugarcane, cotton, coffee, tobacco, cattle, rice, and fish. In the manufacturing sector, bricks, garments, textiles, footwear, carpets, and fireworks appear most frequently. In mined or quarried goods, gold, coal and diamonds are most common.
Given that more than half the world's cobalt comes from the DRC, that one fifth of it is extracted by artisanal (or informal) miners, and that around 40,000 children work in southern DRC where the cobalt is mined, there's a chance that our phones contain child labour.
