However, the latest report released by Apple states that among the 756 suppliers in 30 countries, the overall trend is that they are more in compliance with Apple's code of conduct. This audit has been conducted for 12 years, and the latest annual supplier responsibility report includes An audit of 197 suppliers. Apple operates one of the world's largest manufacturing chains, and most of the factories are owned by contractors.
In the report, Apple said that a score of less than 59 points in the 100-point system became a 'poor performance' and its proportion decreased from 3% in 2016 to 1% in 2017, compared with 14% in 2014. Scores over 90 The percentage of outstanding performers rose from 47% in the previous year to 59%.
In 2017, Apple discovered 44 core rules of labor rules, which had doubled from the previous year. These included three cases where employees were forced to pay excessively high fees for a job. Apple banned this in 2015. Class practice.
One of them is that more than 700 foreign contract workers from the Philippines have been charged a total of $1 million by the supplier. Apple said that the company has forced suppliers to repay the money.
From 2016 onwards, the proportion of the 60-hour workweek for Apple suppliers has dropped from 98% to 94%. Apple said that they found 38 cases of counterfeit work hours data in 2017, compared with only 9 cases in the previous year. .
When Apple discovers these false information, it notifies the supplier's CEO and uses the supplier as a target until it resolves the issue and conducts a review to ensure that the solution can prevent future violations from occurring.
Jeff Williams, chief operating officer of Apple, said in a press release: 'We promise to raise the bar every year on the supply chain.'
Apple said that the increase in core violations was due to Apple's introduction of some new suppliers in 2017 and began tracking work time data for 1.3 million supplier employees, which is a 30% increase over previous years.
In this report, Apple also stated that it will launch a women’s health initiative at its supplier’s factory, aiming to benefit 1 million women by 2020.
Apple said that it has launched a factory production line leadership training program in China. The wages of these workers are usually 20% to 30% higher than those of the production line workers.
On Wednesday, Apple also released the Conflict Minerals Report, which is required by the U.S. securities regulator. The report lists suppliers of sensitive metals such as Apple's tin and gold.
Apple said that in 2017, there were 16 smelters and oil refiners withdrew from the supply chain. Ten of them were voluntarily waived by Apple because they were reluctant to participate in third-party audits, and six voluntarily left.
Apple also pointed out that last year found that some Chinese students worked more than 11 hours a day to assemble iPhone X and outlined new regulations regarding the student workforce.