Child labour used in iPhone plants

Michael Carroll | March 01, 2010

telecomseurope.net

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Child labour was used in three factories making the iPhone, Apple has revealed.

The smartphone is one of a number of popular Apple products found to have been made using parts assembled by children as young as 15 years old at several unspecified locations throughout Apple’s supply chain.

In its latest supply chain audit, Apple said it found 11 cases of 15 year olds being hired in countries where the legal minimum age of employment is 16.

At the time of the latest audit, the children had either turned 16, or were no longer employed by the offending factories.

The firm uncovered three cases of suppliers providing false data, one of which involved further cases of child labour being used, and the latter two aimed at hiding breaches of an Apple code governing working hours and days off.

Apple also appears to blame suppliers for a recent poisoning incident at one of its Chinese facilities involving 62 staff.

The report cites three instances where suppliers used “noncertified hazardous waste disposal companies,” and states that Apple ordered each firm to “stop shipping waste,” until they hired approved handlers.

Source:

Michael Carroll