In Apple’s Chinese factories, worker abuse continues

Apple continues to profit from terrible working conditions in its Chinese factories, a new report from China Labor Watch (CLW) finds. Workers at Pegatron, a Shanghai factory with roughly 60,000 employees, are currently manufacturing the highly anticipated iPhone 7. CLW’s report finds that those workers are underpaid, forced to work overtime, denied leave, and exposed to potential occupational injuries without proper protection.

Over the last 12 months, CLW reviewed paystubs from the Pegatron factory in Shanghai. The investigation revealed that workers’ wages have dropped significantly in the past eight months and that the factory controls labor costs by cutting welfare and sharing insurance payments with workers. “In 2015, workers’ hourly wage was $1.85 USD,” the investigation finds. “In 2016, workers’ hourly wage increased to $2.00 USD, but after deductions, this amounts to only $1.60 USD.”

Pegatron workers were also denied leave and forced into excessive, illegal overtime. “Of the 2015 paystubs” that CLW reviewed, “62% had over 82 hours of overtime work per month.” One month, one employee worked 109 hours of overtime for a total of 293 work-hours.

Read CLW’s full report here.

The factories in Apple’s supply chain have a history of worker abuse. Earlier reports focused on FoxConn, a Taiwanese-owned company that makes iPhones in China. In 2012, the New York Times published “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad,” revealing the Chinese factory workers that produce Apple products often face overwork, injury, and death. Despite significant outrage at the time, four years later Apple continues to rely and profit off exploited Chinese workers.

Links:

Apple is the source of mistreatment of Chinese workers (China Labor Watch, Aug. 24, 2016)

iPhone or iExploit? Rampant Labor Violations in Apple's Supply Chain (Truthout, Aug. 25, 2016)

The other side of Apple's shiny surface (Speed Matters, Jan. 27, 2012)

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad (New York Times, Jan. 26, 2012)