Apple says it stepped up environmental audits of suppliers and found significantly fewer cases of underage labor at its supplier plants last year. The findings were highlighted in Apple’s annual Supplier Responsibility report, which the company released Friday.
As part of the report on worker protections and factory conditions, Apple also published a list of its production suppliers—an unprecedented move for a company that tends to keep a tight lid on details about its supply chain. Apple says the list of 156 suppliers represents 97 percent of its procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of its products around the globe.
The release of Apple’s supplier list appears to be prompted by the company joining the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit organization that targets sweatshop conditions. Apple is the first technology company to join the FLA, which will audit Apple’s supply chain to see how it measure up against the group’s Workplace Code of Conduct. Those results will be published on the FLA website, according to Apple.
The Supplier Responsibility report published Friday is the sixth annual look into working conditions and environmental impact at the third-party factories that supply parts and assemble Apple products. This year’s report included 229 audits throughout Apple’s supply chain, an 80 percent increase from the previous report, according to the company. Apple says it also conducted more than 100 first-time audits in 2011 as it expanded its program to go deeper into its supply base and added more specialized looks on safety and the environment.
The 27-page report covers four areas regarding Apple suppliers: labor and human rights, worker health and safety, environmental impact, and ethics. The report additionally looks at suppliers’ efforts to set up management systems to keep themselves in compliance with Apple’s code of conduct and their efforts to educate and develop workers.
On the labor front, Apple says it broadened its age verification program, which aims to stop underage labor among its suppliers. As a result, the company reported improvements in supplier hiring practices, with cases of underage labor down significantly. The report discloses a total of six active and 13 historical instances of underage labor at five facilities; Apple required those suppliers to improve labor recruitment practices and support underage workers going back to school. The audits found no cases of underage labor at the suppliers responsible for final assembly of Apple’s products.
