[NewsPoster]

Ahead of the airing of a Panorama documentary on the subject, the BBC has published a web piece revealing the outcomes of its investigation into Apple's supply chain. The network went undercover, and charges that promises to protect the rights of workers were "routinely broken." In particular, the BBC found violations of standards for work hours, ID cards, dormitories, meetings, and underage labor at Pegatron factories on the outskirts of Shanghai.

Exhausted workers were filmed falling asleep during 12-hour shifts. In another instance, one of the undercover reporters working on parts for Apple computers was made to work 18 days in a row, despite repeatedly requesting a day off. It was not noted, in either the web piece or the documentary, that Pegatron also manufactures for other clients apart from Apple.

Apple has already responded to the story, saying that it "strongly disagreed with the programme's conclusions" while issuing a formal statement. "We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions," the company writes. "We work with suppliers to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done." On the issue of workers falling asleep, the company claims that it's common for them to take naps during breaks, but adds that it will investigate evidence pointing to it happening mid-shift. It further says that it's monitoring the hours of over a million workers, and that Pegatron laborers are averaging 55 hours a week.

On the topic of material sourcing, the company insists it's committed to ethical practices. In the documentary however, Panorama visits the Indonesian island of Bangka, where in one mine it found children digging tin by hand in risky conditions under which people can be buried should a sand or mud wall collapse. The ore from that mine was collected by a gang selling it to a smelter in Apple's supply chain. Johan Murod, the owner of one Apple smelter, estimates that about 70 percent of the exported tin comes from small-scale mines. "At the smelter there's everything from both large and small scale mines. It's all mixed. There's no way to know what is legal and what is illegal," he says.

Apple supports this view, arguing that the Bangka situation is complex, owing to tens of thousands of miners selling tin through intermediate parties. "The simplest course of action would be for Apple to unilaterally refuse any tin from Indonesian mines. That would be easy for us to do, and would certainly shield us from criticism," it states. "But that would also be the lazy and cowardly path, since it would do nothing to improve the situation. We have chosen to stay engaged and attempt to drive changes on the ground."

[coffeetime]

I am sure everything we own comes from sweat shop somewhere...... including your loved ones' diamond probably are "blood" diamonds from Africa.

[Flying Meat]

I would adjust slightly, but agree. "I am sure some part of many things we each own..."

[Charles Martin]

I find it odd that the BBC documentary crew didn't give Apple the opportunity to rebut. They are generally quite even-handed on these matters, but perhaps Apple was invited to comment and chose not to.

[c. haynes]

I presume we'll be getting the report from "The BBC" of similar situations involving the conditions of other computer and electronic device manufacturers...??? My goodness Apple is the ONLY one? We're so fortunate it's the only one and now the BBC can go on to other "fact" finding missions in other industries. Try journalism.

[Feathers]

The program set out to support and confirm a pre-decided hypothesis. It was a disgracefully biased piece of so-called journalism. No mention was made of the other companies for whom Pegatron also manufactures.

In relation to the "supply chain", it is only because Apple audits and publicises its downstream suppliers that Panorama could even know the name of the tin smelting company. To be clear, Apple doesn't buy tin (no more than it manufactures its own solder) but manufacturers from whom Apple receives components do. Why weren't these "intermediary" companies mentioned such as Samsung, LG and so forth?

This kind of selective journalism is typical of a hypocritical, liberal class who seek to impose their "western" values onto the entire planet. It is routine for people to work 12-14 hour days in say, South Korea, for example, but that doesn't serve Panorama's agenda. I routinely worked 16 hour days and 100 hour weeks in the hotel industry in the USA and nobody called it slavery. There are many, many people who sleep during their lunch breaks around the world. The fact that their isn't a journalist on the planet who actually knows the meaning of the word "work" is proven by this shambolic piece of biased journalism.

[Grendelmon]

These comments don't surprise me the least, at all.