Has Apple done enough to help Foxconn workers - Essay Example

12 on Apple products manufactured in China; there has been mounting criticism of labor malpractices in the manufacturing processes, leading to conduction of investigations by international labor groups into companies which contract to make Apple products. The makers of iPad have specifically largely been criticized for a number of labor related problems, some of which are quite serious in nature (Andrzejcyzk, 2015). Thus the workers who toil night and day at manufacturing plants in China to ensure that Apple customers are satisfied, usually do so under harsh working conditions including work hours beyond the 8 hour day, forced overtime as well as other health and safety risks(Chang, “Audit Faults Apple Supplier’s Factories in China”).

Foxconn Taiwanese company is Apple’s key supplier for the iPad and employs over I million people there. In March 2012,Fair Labor Association(FLA) conducted research(almost 3,000 hours at 3 of the Foxconn factories) and found the following; that the average work week was 60 hours with 36 hours overtime for the month at all the Foxconn manufacturing sites, some employees did not have a single day off for the entire work week, with several employees logging in a 7 day work week before they got a day off, over 60% of employees surveyed claimed that their pay did not cover enough to “meet basic needs” .

A group called Students and Scholars also compiled a report in May 2012 against Corporate Misbehavior(SACOM).The report derived its content from interviews conducted with factory workers and supervisors in Shenzhen and Zhengzhou, China. The SACOM report cited that while the company increased wages, it also increased production quotas by some 10%.Moreover the living conditions were described as being “cramped and unpleasant” with at times as many as 30 workers sharing space in an apartment with just 3 bedrooms (Musil, “Foxconn Working Conditions Slammed by Workers Rights Groups”).

Te employees were also strictly warned not