Apple is in the news again over working conditions for people who manufacture its products in Chinese factories. The BBC investigative Panaorama did undercover filming and interviewed exhausted employees who said they worked up to 16 hours a day with no days off for long stretches at a time. They lived 12 people per room in dorms and were forced to go to before- and after-work meetings without being paid. The BBC program said Apple is failing to live up to its promise to improve the working conditions in China. Panorama also found that some of the tin in Apple products came from illegal child labor mines in Indonesia.
Apple responded with an internal memo which said that CEO Tim Cook and executive Jeff Williams were “deeply offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a promise to the workers in our supply chain.” Apple is resentful of the BBC’s suggestion that Apple isn’t living up to its promise: the tech giant promised to improve working conditions in 2010, after 14 people committed suicide due at Foxconn supplier in China.
