AppleInsider Staff
Workers at a Catcher-owned facility in Suqian, China are subjected to discriminatory hiring policies, forced to handle toxic materials without proper protective gear, and made to work excessive overtime to manufacture parts for Apple's next-generation iPad Air, according to a scathing undercover report released Thursday by China Labor Watch and Green America.
The laundry list of complaints — 22 in all — touches nearly every area of factory operations, from environmental and occupational safety to wages and living conditions. Thursday's report was first noted by the New York Times.
Catcher is accused of discriminating against potential hires by capping its recruiting age limit at 46 and refusing to hire people with tattoos — men are forced to remove their shirts to prove that they have no such body modifications. The firm also forces workers to lie on documentation saying that they have received safety training, even though no training, or inadequate training, was given.
Among the more serious violations are allegations that Catcher locks fire exits and windows, even in areas where flammable magnesium-alloy dust wafts through the air and employees openly smoke cigarettes. Similar practices were responsible for the death of more than 100 people in a Bangladesh garment factory fire in 2012.
"Apple has a long way to go to ensure workers are laboring under safe and fair conditions." — report
Catcher has also been charged with pouring industrial waste directly into local sewers and rivers, the same accusations leveled at Foxconn-owned factories near Shanghai last year.
The two labor rights groups say that Catcher, which also works for Apple rivals including Samsung, not only violated Apple's supplier code of conduct, but also ran afoul of Chinese labor laws and the Taiwan-based manufacturer's own internal policies. It is the second time in two years that egregious violations have been found at the Suqian plant, and several problems identified last year remain.
Speaking to the Times, an Apple spokesperson said that the company had "found some concrete areas for improvement in Catcher's operations" during its most recent audit in May, and "worked with Catcher to develop a corrective action plan."
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35 Comments
Love the coordinated attack of piling on negative stories right before Apples event. Disgusting.
Guess China Labor Watch has an utter inability to take these issues to, oh, I don't know...CHINA to have THEM look into the issues?
So, Catcher got caught.
While both of your comments have merit, the fact remains that if the allegations are accurate, the violations are so egregious that the factory deserves to be closed. But maybe if there's enough of these kinds of violations of decent corporate behavior on the part of these factories, Apple and other companies will eventually give consideration to returning more manufacturing to Europe, Japan and the Americas. I've always believed that companies should manufacture where their markets are so that consumers who purchase the products also have the benefits that jobs would bring to their region or country. The inefficiency of manufacturing in multiple places would be made up for by the efficiency of having manufacturing close to market.
While both of your comments have merit, the fact remains that if the allegations are accurate, the violations are so egregious that the factory deserves to be closed.
But maybe if there's enough of these kinds of violations of decent corporate behavior on the part of these factories, Apple and other companies will eventually give consideration to returning more manufacturing to Europe, Japan and the Americas.
I've always believed that companies should manufacture where their markets are so that consumers who purchase the products also have the benefits that jobs would bring to their region or country. The inefficiency of manufacturing in multiple places would be made up for by the efficiency of having manufacturing close to market.
While I would love that idea to happen, there is no way companies are going to bring manufacturing back to the US for the foreseeable future. The time and cost is too great.