Mood:  accident prone

Child labour uncovered in Apple's supply chain

Internal audit reveals 106 children employed at 11 factories making Apple products in past year

^{http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/25/apple-child-labour-supply/print} 

Juliette Garside, telecoms correspondent

Apple has discovered multiple cases of child labour in its supply chain, including one Chinese company that employed 74 children under the age of 16, in the latest controversy over the technology giant's manufacturing methods.

An internal audit found a flipside to the western consumer's insatiable thirst for innovative and competitively priced gadgets. It uncovered 106 cases of underage labour being used at Apple suppliers last year and 70 cases historically. The report follows a series of worker suicides over working conditions at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles must-have products such as the iPad and iPhone, and lethal explosions at other plants.

Apple's annual supplier report – which monitors nearly 400 suppliers – found that children were employed at 11 factories involved in making its products. A number of them had been recruited using forged identity papers.

The report uncovered a catalogue of other offences, ranging from mandatory pregnancy tests, to bonded workers whose wages are confiscated to pay off debts imposed by recruitment agencies. They also found cases of juveniles being used to lift heavy goods, workers having their wages docked as a punishment and one factory dumping waste oil in the toilets.

One Chinese supplier, a circuit board component maker called Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics, was axed by Apple after 74 children under the age of 16 were recruited to work on its production lines. According to Apple, the children had been knowingly supplied by one of the region's largest labour agencies, Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources. Its investigators found that the agency conspired with families to forge identification documents. Apple did not disclose the ages of the children involved, but its code of conduct states it will not employ workers under the age of 15, or under the legal working age in any jurisdiction – which is 16 in China.

Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, who in a previous role was responsible for building Apple's supply chain, has been under pressure to push through changes after the suicides at Foxconn, whose manufacturing operations are largely based in China. Last September a brawl involving up to 2,000 workers forced Foxconn to close a plant in northern China.

Last year he described the use of underage labour as "abhorrent", saying it was "extremely rare in our supply chain", and stepped up measures to weed out bad practice including hiring an independent auditor, the Fair Labor Association.

"Underage labour is a subject no company wants to be associated with, so as a result I don't believe it gets the attention it deserves, and as a result it doesn't get fixed like it should," said Jeff Williams, senior vice president of operations at Apple. He vowed to eradicate the practice, but said it could take some time.

At Pingzhou, the children were returned to their families and the employer was "required to pay expenses to facilitate their successful return". Although 95% of the facilities scrutinised by Apple complied with child labour laws, transgressors were told to return minors to a school chosen by their family, pay for their education, and give them an income equal to their factory wages.

Bonded labour was discovered at eight factories. In order to find work, some foreign labourers pay fees to a string of recruitment agencies and sub-agencies, amassing huge debts. Their wages are then automatically handed over to pay the debts, tying them to jobs until the balance has been paid off.

Apple ordered its suppliers to reimburse excessive recruitment fees – anything higher than one month's wages – and said $6.4m (£4m) was handed back to contract workers in 2012.

Investigators found 90 facilities that deducted wages to punish workers, prompting Apple to order the reimbursement of employees. Mandatory pregnancy testing was found at 34 places of work, while 25 tested for medical conditions such as hepatitis B. At four facilities, payroll records were falsified to hide information from auditors, and at one, a supplier was found intentionally dumping waste oil "into the restroom receptacle".

Apple said it took measures to protect whistleblowers, and that it made 8,000 calls last year to workers interviewed by auditors in order to find out if they had suffered intimidation. 

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/25/apple-child-labour-supply/print 

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:01 AM PST

Updated: Tuesday, 29 January 2013 10:19 AM PST

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Mood:  loud

^{http://www.szcpost.com/2012/11/foxconn-tries-to-get-rid-of-labor-disputes-through-robots.html}

Foxconn, the largest electronic industry manufacturer in the world, has ranked top of the 200 powerful export enterprises for consecutive nine years. In 2009, it ascended to the 60th of the global top 500 companies. However, Foxconn has gone through hardships in the negative news of employee turbulence, suicide, bad working conditions and employment of students, which, fortunately have been solved.

Early this year, Foxconn announced it had planned to replace one million employees with robots in three years, and now the plan has been implemented. According to relevant report, Foxconn has put into use the first 10 thousand robots and it aims to get in 20 thousand robots by the end of this year.

Those robots, designed by Foxconn itself, are used to conduct simple and repeated actions with high working efficiency.

The cost of those robots are low. The manufacture cost of one Foxconn robot is 20-25 thousand dollars, about three years salary of an ordinary worker, which is very cheap. So we estimate Foxconn will complete its three-year plan in advance if those robots operate well in daily productions.

Allen from Shenzhen Post (original post)

http://www.szcpost.com/2012/11/foxconn-tries-to-get-rid-of-labor-disputes-through-robots.html

RELATED FOXCONN TOPIC:

Foxconn-buys-land-in-brazil

^{http://www.szcpost.com/2012/11/foxconn-buys-land-in-brazil-for-new-factory-development.html}

Foxconn  CMMSG Industria de Electronicos Ltda, a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., revealed that it has bought 1.42 million square meters or about 350 acres of land in Brazil from Toulous Incorporacao SPE LTDA Group for a total price of 12,640,000 dollars.

One of Hon Hai’s subsidiaries, Foxconn , is the largest manufacturer of computer fittings in the world and also an internationally well-known enterprise that cooperate with Apple, Sony, Nokia and other multinational companies. Foxconn has exclusively assembled iPhone and iPad tablets for Apple Corporation.

The purchase verifies Hon Hai’s announcement earlier that it would make an investment of total 492 million dollars to establish a new factory in Sao Paulo in Brazil for production of smart phones, tablets and other electronic equipments, according to relevant information.

Hon Hai Group also said, Brazilian government’s tax reduction policy and local market’s preferential policies make the country the best manufactory place except for China. It is also a good opportunity for Foxconn to develop it business. There is no more details in the company’s announcement.

Allen from Shenzhen Post (original post):

http://www.szcpost.com/2012/11/foxconn-buys-land-in-brazil-for-new-factory-development.html

Posted by Joe Anybody at 11:33 AM PST

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Mood:  don't ask

Foxconn

to replace workers with 1 million robots

 http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/11/foxconn-installs-first-10000-robots-of.html

 ^{Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots}

Singularity Hub - a first batch of 10,000 robots — aptly named Foxbots — appear to have made its way into at least one Foxconn factory, and by the end of 2012, another 20,000 more will be installed. Foxconn is aiming to replace 1 million Foxconn workers with robots within 3 years. According to a translated page from the Chinese site Techweb, each robot costs between $20,000 to $25,000, which is over three times the average salary of one worker. However, amid international pressure, Foxconn continues to increase worker salaries with a 25 percent bump occurring earlier this year.

Foxconn, which has 1.2 million employees in China, has come under scrutiny in the past few years amid reports of employees committing suicide at company facilities. The company has also been accused of employing underage laborers, providing poor living conditions at its dormitory housing, and overworking employees.

Prior to the announcement of the the robot initiative last year, at least 16 workers reportedly committed suicide since the beginning of 2010 at Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, a plant that employs hundreds of thousands of workers. Another three have attempted to suicide at the job site.

Most of the suicides have involved jumping from buildings. In response to the situation, the company promised to install "suicide nets" to discourage employees from jumping, as well as raise salaries by 25 percent.

http://youtu.be/Vd5R7BHcFfo

           Original Article was found here:

• http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/11/foxconn-installs-first-10000-robots-of.html

--> 29 comments

Posted by Joe Anybody at 8:58 AM PST

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Mood:  down

Foxconn reportedly installing

Robots to replace workers

Following a rash of suicides and criticism of factory working conditions, the Taiwanese hardware maker announced the move last year, saying it was designed to improve efficiency and combat rising labor costs.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57549450-92/foxconn-reportedly-installing-robots-to-replace-workers/

 ORIGIN LINK IS PASTED ABOVE THIS TEXT

Chinese tech site TechWeb says the robots cost up to $25,000 a piece to manufacture.

Foxconn, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing giant frequently criticized for poor working conditions, has reportedly begun replacing its factory workers with robots.

After a rash of worker suicides at Foxconn factories in China, the manufacturer of hardware for Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Sony announced its intention last year to replace some of its workers with robots. Terry Gou, founder and chairman of the company, told employees at a dance in July 2011 that the move was designed to improve efficiency and combat rising labor costs.

The first batch of 10,000 robots -- nicknamed "Foxbots" -- have arrived in at least one Foxconn factory, with another 20,000 due by the end of the year, according to a Singularity Hub post. The robots cost between $20,000 and $25,000 apiece to produce -- about three times the average annual salary of Foxconn's factory workers, according to a report on the Chinese Web site TechWeb.

CNET has contacted Foxconn for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

Foxconn, which has 1.2 million employees in China, has come under scrutiny in the past few years amid reports of employees committing suicide at company facilities. The company has also been accused of employing underage laborers, providing poor living conditions at its dormitory housing, and overworking employees.

Prior to the announcement of the the robot initiative last year, at least 16 workers reportedly committed suicide since the beginning of 2010 at Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, a plant that employs hundreds of thousands of workers. Another three have attempted to suicide at the job site.

Most of the suicides have involved jumping from buildings. In response to the situation, the company promised to install "suicide nets" to discourage employees from jumping, as well as raise salaries by 25 percent.

Foxconn facilities have also been rocked by violent clashes involving factory workers. An hours-long riot involving thousands of employees forced one Foxconn factory in China to temporarily close in August. While Foxconn confirmed that incident and promised to address its causes, the company has denied reports that 3,000 to 4,000 workers staged a strike at another Foxconn factory in October.

 Article was found here:

_{http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57549450-92/foxconn-reportedly-installing-robots-to-replace-workers/}

Posted by Joe Anybody at 11:13 AM PST

Updated: Friday, 16 November 2012 11:15 AM PST

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Mood:  chillin'

Foxconn Surprises with Increased Profits

 http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2012/11/01/foxconn-surprises-with-increased-profits/

No doubt, this week is turning out to be an incredibly active week in terms of supply chain related news and developments.  There are implications to the monster storm that impacted the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., a major merger announcement involving two best-of-breed supply chain technology providers, and a slew of quarterly earnings announcements that provide supply chain-related consequences.  In commentary through the remainder of this week, Supply Chain Matters will touch upon these developments.

A significant earnings announcement involves the world’s largest contract manufacturer, Foxconn. In its first nine months, net profits have risen 24 percent to $1.9 billion, based on a 20 percent revenue increase. Gross margin were reported as an increase to 4.6 percent, vs. a 3.7 percent level a year earlier.

Dwell on that gross margin number for a moment.  How many firms can successfully manage that level of margin when physical manufacturing services are concerned?

The answer is obviously making every cost expenditure count and having massive scale and volume to leverage physical assets. Having the globe’s most popular consumer electronics provider, namely Apple, fuel that scale, obviously makes the formula work.  Having other large volume customers and global-scale is also essential to grow profitability over the longer term.

In its reporting of Foxconn earnings, the Financial Times discloses (paid subscription or free metered view) the impact that Apple actually has.  While Foxconn does not dare disclose anything related to Apple for obvious reasons, FT quotes equity analysts as indicating that Apple represents 40 to 50 percent of Foxconn’s current revenues.  We believe that that number is probably highly conservative.

In our Supply Chain Matters previous commentary related to Apple’s latest quarterly earnings we noted the total volume of quarterly unit output as well as the signs of constrained supply. Yet in spite of ongoing Apple supply constraints and a number of troubling workforce-related incidents, Foxconn marches on and defies classic business case thinking. The FT article is quick to also point out that with the two most recent Apple product introductions, the new iPhone 5 and iPad Mini, and the holiday buying season yet to unfold, the prospects for continued volume growth look good for Foxconn.

Longer-term, however, Foxconn must focus on its broader strategic plan. Worker demands for higher pay and better working conditions obviously lead toward the need for increased automation of repetitive and monotonous production tasks, which imply increased capital costs.  The trick is influencing primary customers like Apple to share the bulk of that burden.  Then again, Apple needs to put some of its hoards of foreign-based cash to good use.

Apple has also begun to exercise its own supply chain risk mitigation strategy by dual sourcing of the assembly production of the iPad Mini among two contract manufacturers, the other being Pegatron. Foxconn must therefore seek to offset continued needs for added margin with increased scale, further supply chain vertical integration while recruiting additional customers.

In the end, however, we believe that the contract manufacturing business model will have to significantly change, since sustaining single-digit margins, while bearing the brunt of labor, capital and social responsibility burdens is not sustainable over the long-term.

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:01 AM PDT

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Mood:  on fire

Riot at Foxconn Factory

By DAVID BARBOZA and KEITH BRADSHER

Published: September 24, 2012

Original Post is from here:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/business/global/foxconn-riot-underscores-labor-rift-in-china.html?_r=0

SHANGHAI — The images and video began to appear on Chinese social networking sites early Monday: buildings with shattered windows, overturned police cars, huge crowds of young people milling about in the dark and riot police in formation.

Enlarge This Image

 

The New York Times

 

The online postings were from a disturbance late Sunday that shut down a manufacturing facility in Taiyuan in north China, where 79,000 workers were employed.

State-run news media said 5,000 police officers had to be called in to quell a riot that began as a dispute involving a group of workers and security guards at a factory dormitory.

The unrest was noteworthy because the factory site is managed by Foxconn Technology, one of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturers and an important supplier to companies like Apple, Dell, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

A spokesman for Foxconn said the company was investigating the cause of the incident. But analysts say worker unrest in China has grown more common because workers are more aware of their rights, and yet have few outlets to challenge or negotiate with their employers.

When they do, though, the results can be ugly and, because of social media and the Web, almost instantly transmitted to the world in their rawest and most unfiltered form.

“At first it was a conflict between the security guards and some workers,” said a man who was reached by telephone after he posted images online. The man said he was a Foxconn employee. “But I think the real reason is they were frustrated with life.”

The company said that as many as 2,000 workers were involved in the incident but that it was confined to an employee dormitory and “no production facilities or equipment have been affected.”

Nonetheless, the plant was closed, the company said.

Foxconn, which is based in Taiwan and employs more than 1.1 million workers in China, declined to say whether the Taiyuan plant made products for the Apple iPhone 5, which went on sale last week. A spokesman said the factory supplied goods to many consumer electronics brands. An employee at the Taiyuan plant said iPhone components were made there.

Supply-chain experts say most Apple-related production takes place in other parts of China, particularly in the provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong and Henan.

Apple referred questions to Foxconn.

Labor unrest in Taiyuan, in northern China’s Shanxi Province, comes as strikes and other worker protests appear to be increasing in frequency this year compared with last year, said Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for the China Labor Bulletin, a nonprofit advocacy group in Hong Kong seeking collective bargaining and other protections for workers in mainland China.

Many of the protests this year appear to be related to the country’s economic slowdown, as employees demand the payment of overdue wages from financially struggling companies, or insist on compensation when money-losing factories in coastal provinces are closed and moved to lower-cost cities in the interior.

But the level of labor unrest in China this year has not yet matched 2010, when a surge in inflation sparked a wave of worker demands for higher pay, Mr. Crothall said.

The Taiyuan protest comes at a politically delicate time in China, with a Communist Party Congress expected in the coming weeks to anoint a new general secretary and a new slate of members for the country’s most powerful body, the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

The government has been tightening security ahead of the conclave through measures like restricting the issuance of visas and devoting considerable resources to watching and containing disturbances like the recent anti-Japanese demonstrations.

But the calendar may also be on Foxconn’s side. A weeklong public holiday starts this weekend to mark the country’s national day on Oct. 1. Factories across the country will close to allow workers to go home — and in the case of Foxconn’s Taiyuan factory, the dispersal of workers to hometowns could allow tempers to cool.

Mr. Crothall said that while the cause of the latest dispute in Taiyuan remained unclear, his group had found an online video of the police there using a megaphone to address “workers from Henan” — the adjacent province to the south of Shanxi. The police officer said that the workers’ concerns would be addressed.

Disputes involving large groups of migrant workers are common in China. In some cases, workers protest after believing that they have been promised a certain pay package and traveled a long distance to claim it, only to find on arrival that the details were different from what they expected. In other cases, workers from different provinces with different cultural traditions coming together in a single factory have clashed over social issues or perceived slights.

The disturbance is the latest problem to hit Foxconn.

Foxconn, which is part of Hon Hai Group of Taiwan, has been struggling to improve labor conditions at its China factories after reports about labor abuse and work safety violations.

Apple and Foxconn have worked together to improve conditions, raise pay and improve labor standards, particularly since March when the Fair Labor Association, a monitoring group invited by Apple to investigate conditions, found widespread problems.

Mr. Crothall said workers in China had become emboldened.

“They’re more willing to stand up for their rights, to stand up to injustice,” he said, adding that damage to factory buildings and equipment still appeared to be unusual, occurring in fewer than 1 in 20 protests.

The same Taiyuan factory was the site of a brief strike during a pay dispute last March, the Hong Kong news media reported then.

Social media postings suggested that some injuries might have occurred when people were trampled in crowds of protesters.

Posted by Joe Anybody at 9:38 AM PDT

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Mood:  irritated

OCCUPY PORTLAND MARKS ANNIVERSARY IN SOLIDARITY WITH GLOBAL 99%RALLY SUPPORTS INJURED COLOMBIAN GM WORKERS SEEKING JUSTICE 

MONDAY AFTERNOON ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2012, A PORTLAND CROWD NUMBERING IN THE HUNDREDS TURNED OUT FOR THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF OCCUPY WALL STREET, WHICH THEY MARKED BY RALLYING FOR JUSTICE FOR COLOMBIAN GENERAL MOTORS WORKERS WHO WERE HURT ON THE JOB AND THEN KICKED TO THE CURB BY THE US-BASED, AND TO A CONSIDERABLE EXTENT US GOVERNMENT OWNED MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION. 

THE COLOMBIANS HAVE MAINTAINED A CONTINUOUS PEACEFUL OCCUPATION IN FRONT OF THE US EMBASSY IN BOGOTÁ FOR OVER 400 DAYS. TEN OF THE COLOMBIAN WORKERS INCLUDING COLOMBIAN WORKER LEADER JORGE PARRA ARE ENTERING THEIR THIRD WEEK ON HUNGER STRIKE.

MR. PARRA IS CURRENTLY IN DETROIT WHERE SUPPORTERS RALLIED IN FRONT OF GM WORLD HEADQUARTERS AS PART OF AN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR THE WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.“THE FACT THAT GENERAL MOTORS IS FIRING WORKERS FOR INJURIES THEY DEVELOPED ON THE JOB IS BAD ENOUGH, THE COMPANY’S REFUSAL TO SIT DOWN AND TALK – THE WILLINGNESS THEY ARE DEMONSTRATING TO TURN A BLIND EYE TO THE WORKER’S HUNGER STRIKE IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE” SAID PAIGE SHELL-SPURLING, A MEMBER OF THE PORTLAND CENTRAL AMERICA SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE. “ GENERAL MOTORS IS SHOWING AN UTTER DISREGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE AND SPECIFICALLY FOR THE LIVES OF THE WORKERS ON WHOSE BACKS GM’S PROFITS ARE MADE.“THE PORTLAND RALLY DELIVERED PETITIONS DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR THE COLOMBIAN WORKERS WITH OVER 4,000 SIGNERS TO WENTWORTH CHEVROLET.

A MANAGER AT WENTWORTH AGREED TO FORWARD THE PETITIONS TO THE GM CORPORATE OFFICES. ACCORDING TO MARCO MEJIA OF PORTLAND JOBS WITH JUSTICE, “THE ISSUE OF EXPLOITATION OF THE COLOMBIAN GM WORKERS IS EMBLEMATIC OF THE KIND OF GLOBAL CORPORATE CORRUPTION THAT THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT IS FIGHTING AGAINST. 

OCCUPY AND THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN GENERAL IS CONTINUING TO BUILD CAPACITY FOR CHANGE THROUGH EDUCATION, AGITATION AND MOBILIZATION.”

THE EVENT CONCLUDED WITH REMARKS FROM SEVERAL SPEAKERS AT ST. FRANCIS PARK, NEXT TO OCCUPY’S CURRENT BASE OF OPERATIONS AT ST. FRANCIS CHURCH. JOHN WALSH, ACTIVE WITH WITNESS FOR PEACE, SUMMED UP “CORPORATE WEALTH SHOULD NOT STEAL WORKERS’ HEALTH.”CAMERON WHITTEN, PORTLAND’S OWN HUNGER STRIKER FOR JUSTICE, READ A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM  JORGE PARRA.  JORGE ALSO SENT WORDS OF GREETING TO ALL OF THOSE RALLYING IN SOLIDARITY MONDAY:

Brothers and sisters in the struggle:It is for us an enormous blessing to count on your support. We never thought that our simple struggle would result in such a beautiful show of solidarity. It definitely unites our wish for the same cause of justice that you desire in your beautiful country.I feel truly moved and grateful for such great commitment and affection demonstrated towards us and our families. As you know, we are just Colombian workers, but with the firm conviction to fight and defend our rights. In the end, we are workers like you, and today we unite in the same world in a single call for justice and for GM to do what is right.Although we are not present in your actions of support, our hearts and our prayers are with you.

On behalf of Asotrecol and our families, thank you very much.  Compañeros y hermanos de la lucha:Es para nosotros una enorme bendición contar con su apoyo. Jamás pensamos que nuestra lucha tan simple y transparente diera como resultado esta hermosa muestra de solidaridad. Definitivamente unió nuestro sentimiento con la misma causa de justicia que ustedes anhelan en su hermoso país.

Me siento verdaderamente conmovido y agradecido  por tan grande compromiso y cariño demostrado para con nosotros y nuestras familias. Como saben, solo somos obreros colombianos pero con la firme convicción de luchar y defender nuestros derechos. Somos trabajadores como ustedes pero a fin de cuenta trabajadores, y hoy en el mismo mundo se unen en un solo grito de justicia para lograr que GM haga lo correcto.Aunque nosotros no estemos presentes en sus acciones de apoyo, nuestro corazón y nuestras oraciones lo están. En nombre de Asotrecol y nuestras familias, muchas gracias. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/asotrecol

http://www.asotrecol.com

WWW.WITNESSFORPEACE.ORGhttp://www.change.org/petitions#search/ASOTRECOL 

Posted by Joe Anybody at 8:37 AM PDT

Updated: Sunday, 23 September 2012 3:04 PM PDT

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Mood:  accident prone

12 June 2011 | Angeline Albert

^{http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2011/foxconn-comes-under-the-scrutiny-of-intel/}

Intel’s supply chain executives are working with supplier Foxconn to help improve working conditions at a factory in China.

In 2010,

10 employees

committed suicide

at the Shenzhen facility.

News of the deaths prompted Intel to conduct an analysis of what had happened and an on-site audit. Foxconn, which is part of Taiwanese-owned Hon Hai Industries, makes motherboards for Intel.

Intel’s 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report said: “Like many other companies in our industry that work with this supplier, Intel was deeply concerned about this tragic situation. Executives from our supply chain organisation have been in continuing discussions with Foxconn’s senior management, and we have offered them our assistance in the form of human resources staff expertise and other general support.”

Intel joined the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition’s (EICC) employee health and welfare taskforce to conduct an audit on-site to identify both major and minor areas of non-compliance to the EICC code of conduct which the company has signed up to. This code covers labour, health and safety, environment, management systems and ethics. More than 40 global IT companies and their suppliers are part of the EICC.

Intel’s audits revealed that the most common breaches of compliance in 2010 were in the areas of health and safety (including emergency preparedness), labour and working hours. The report said: “In 2011, we will further monitor the issues identified in the audit to ensure that progress continues to be made.”

Overall, the group completed 172 in-depth risk assessments of supplier facilities in 2010 (up from 74 in 2009). Areas identified as potentially high risk included employee issues, such as child labour and excessive working hours.

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:01 PM PDT

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