Apple has come under scrutiny once again for a poor environment and abuse of its factory workers in China, Bloomberg reported.
The tech giant said it will investigate new allegations made by China Labor Watch (CLW), an advocacy watchdog, that Apple's factories run by Pegatron Corp. use underage workers, provide insufficient pay and force overtime.
CLW, based in New York, released a report Monday that details 86 labor rights violations in three Pegatron factories from March to July. Apple has reportedly been in close contact with the advocacy group for several months but the details were apparently not shared.
"We will investigate these new claims thoroughly, ensure that corrective actions are taken where needed and report any violations of our code of conduct," Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Apple, told Bloomberg. "We will not tolerate deviations from our code."
Apple joined the Washington-based Fair Labor Association last year, the first tech company to do so, after being criticized for the working conditions at its Foxconn Technology Group suppliers.
"[Pegatron factories] are even worse than those at Foxconn," CLW Executive Director Li Qiang said in a statement.
CLW said 36 of the 86 infractions they found were violations of the law while the other 50 were ethical. Findings are based on more than 200 interviews of workers conducted outside the factory.
"Pegatron's problems have become a reflection on Apple," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners LP in New York who has a buy rating on Apple shares. "Consumers will get to vote with their wallets if it's that much of a concern, but they're not necessarily voting with their wallets right now."
Wu said Apple has performed 15 audits on the factory since 2007 and has covered more than 130,000 workers. The most recent, she said, found that people making Apple's various products were working an average of 46 hours a week.
CLW claimed the average amount of hours per week were 66 to 69, in violation with China's 49-hour mandate. The report also claims the workers were forced to sign time cards that indicated their overtime was less than it actually was.
"Apple has not lived up to its own standards," CLW's Li said in the statement. "This will lead to Apple's suppliers abusing labor in order to strengthen their position for receiving orders. In this way, Apple is worsening conditions for workers, not improving them."
A byproduct of the report and another criticism was the supposed reveal of an upcoming low-cost plastic iPhone. According to CNET, the model was detailed in CLW's report and the rush to finish producing it was part of the cause for the infractions.
"At this moment, in Shanghai, China, workers in Apple's supplier factory Pegatron are monotonously working long overtime hours to turn out a scaled-back, less expensive version of the iPhone," the report said.
Pegatron CEO Jason Cheng has also stated his company would look into the claim against his factory.
"We will investigate [the allegations] fully and take immediate actions to correct any violations to Chinese labor laws and our own code of conduct," he said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
