Posted on 02/27/2010 7:28:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
Apple has admitted that child labour was used at the factories that build its computers, iPods and mobile phones.
At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple. The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China.
Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.
Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.
Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou.
A spokesman for Wintek said that "almost all" of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital. Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly.
Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Alternate wording: “Apple boasts of providing good jobs to youth, who would otherwise be begging in the streets”.
They have one on their Board of Directors.
hmm I always thought thought Apple was ‘evil’ but not like this.
I have no problem with giving kids a job but they have to have good working conditions.
iChild - New, from Apple
You mean Algore?
15 year olds are regarded as adults in many cultures.
In America 15 year olds are still regarded as “children” — especially in Brady Bunch statistics about “children” who die due to guns.
Apple assists in providing, food, clothing and shelter for disadvantaged youth.
Is Apple hiring? My 14yo wants a paying job.
Indeed. How many of us on FR had their first summer job by the time we were 15?
Oops. I didn’t read the whole article. NO ONE should work at a plant where there is poisoning, but I suspect that has more to do with the factories run in China instead of Apple.
My son worked at a sandwich shop at age 15. Was that ok?
Well, he does have the mind of a slow-witted five-year-old...
Kids have a smaller carbon footprint. All part of the Apple green strategy.
In America 15 year olds are still regarded as “children” — especially in Brady Bunch statistics about “children” who die due to guns.
well according to the new obama plan, you’re a child until you are 26.
A nation is much better off if it educates its children rather than put them to work. OTOH, if a nation is not educating its children that child is better off making iPods than picking beans as a day laborer for a farmer.
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