https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-knowingly-used-child-labor-supplier-3-years-cut-costs-2020-12

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Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully
cut ties, despite the company's promises to hold itself to the
'highest standards,' report says

Tyler Sonnemaker
2020-12-31T23:12:42Z
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Apple CEO Tim Cook in China, March 2019
AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

  * Apple discovered that Suyin Electronics, one of its Chinese-based
    suppliers, relied on child labor on multiple occasions, but still
    took three years to fully cut ties, The Information reported on
    Thursday.
  * Ten former members of Apple's supplier responsibility team
    told The Information the company has refused or has been slow to
    stop doing business with suppliers that repeatedly violate its
    labor policies when doing so would hurt its profits. 
  * Apple has faced intense criticism recently amid reports that it
    relies on forced Uyghur labor and protests over poor working
    conditions and wage theft by workers that make its products.
  * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple is back under the spotlight over labor conditions in its supply
chain following an explosive report from The Information on Thursday
that revealed new details about the company's reluctance to cut
ties with suppliers who violate its ethics policies.

According to the report, Apple learned in 2013 that Suyin
Electronics, a China-based company that (at the time) made parts for
its MacBooks, was employing underage workers, and despite telling
Suyin to address the issue or risk losing business, Apple discovered
additional workers as young as 14 years old during an audit just
three months later.

But rather than immediately cutting ties with Suyin for violating its
supply chain ethics policies -- which prohibit child labor and which
Apple claims are the "highest standards" -- Apple continued to rely on
the company for more than three years, according to The Information.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Suyin
could not be reached for comment.

Ten former members of Apple's supplier responsibility team told
The Information that Suyin wasn't an isolated incident, and that
Apple had refused or was slow to stop doing business with suppliers
that had repeatedly violated labor laws or failed to improve
workplace safety when it would have cut into its profits.

Apple similarly refused to cut ties with Biel Crystal, one of its two
suppliers of glass iPhone screens -- despite a consistently poor
workplace safety record, Apple employees' own concerns, and Biel
executives explicitly admitting that improving safety wasn't
worth it because doing so had actually led to less business from
Apple -- because cutting ties would have left Apple with less
financial leverage over its remaining supplier, Lens Technology,
according to The Information.

Biel did not respond to a request for comment.

In an illustration of just how intertwined Apple has become with
unethical labor practices, The Washington Post reported earlier this
week that Lens Technology itself relies on forced labor from
thousands of Uyghurs that the Chinese government has displaced from
their homes in Xinjiang.

While US lawmakers have proposed legislation aimed on curbing
American companies' ability to use forced Uyghur labor, Apple
sought to weaken the bill, The New York Times reported last month.
(Apple took issue with that claim, telling The Times that it "did not
lobby against" the bill but rather had "constructive discussions"
with congressional staffers).

Apple has long been criticized over the labor practices of its
suppliers, particularly in China but increasingly in other countries
including India, where workers at an iPhone factory rioted after
accusing management of withholding their pay.

In November, Apple was also forced to cut ties with its
second-largest iPhone manufacturer, Pegatron, after discovering the
company had violated labor laws by relying on "student workers" who
were in practice doing work that had nothing to do with their
degrees.

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More: Apple Labor Abuse labor abuses in China Labor and Employment

  * Working Conditions
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