Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Apple's workplace violations report - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech:

One vocational school involved in hiring underage workers for an Apple supplier had falsified student IDs and threatened to punish students who told the auditors their true ages. Another gathered its workers together and instructed them give auditors false wage payment information -- presumably to cover up excessive overtime. At least one supplier offered cash to third-party auditors if they would only sweeten their negative report.

Much of this jibes with the charges laid against Apple by monologist Mike Daisey, who claims in "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" that he interviewed Foxconn workers as young as 13. Foxconn managers know when the auditors are scheduled to visit, Daisey says, and hide their underage workers out of sight.