Apple Asked Fair Labor Association to Audit Foxconn's Manufacturing Facilities, 14/02/2012 - Your reactions

[linathael]

In a press release, Apple announced that the Fair Labor Association, a third party and independent organization, will be auditing Foxconn's facilities in China. The FLS will conduct this investigation at Apple's request.

Apple today announced that the Fair Labor Association will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple’s request. A team of labor rights experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerden began the first inspections Monday morning at the facility in Shenzhen known as Foxconn City.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.

With such strategy, Apple intends to give proofs that the company is indeed concerned by the reported problems and issues regarding Foxconn's employees working conditions. In addition to the internal audit conducted few months ago, Apple decided that having an independent organization running such audit will provide reliable conclusions and would not lead to suspicions of biased reports as currently reported in the news networks. The first preliminary reports of this audit will be released early next month and other Apple's manufacturing partners, Quanta and Pegatron, will also be audited in Spring.


 
By linathael, original by linathael