Greens hit out at Apple
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Iphone maker Apple is under fire over what Chinese green groups say is lax oversight of its suppliers in China, leading to poor environmental and work safety standards that poisoned dozens of factory workers.
Apple, which announced huge profits and a dazzling outlook for sales of iPhones and iPads earlier this week, continues to be dogged by accusations of aggressive pricing and secretive supply chain management in Chinese factories where they now assemble most of their products.
"We've found that Apple isn't honoring its commitment in ensuring its supply chain's work safety and environmental responsibility and giving dignity and respect to the workers," said Ma Jun, of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs which published a detailed report on Apple yesterday, in conjunction with other green groups.
Apple, it said, "only cares about the price and quality and not the environmental and social responsibility issues. In some ways, they drive the suppliers to cut corners to win their contracts."
Apple said it had a rigorous auditing regime and its suppliers were monitored and investigated regularly.
Last year, Apple's main China supplier, Foxconn, was hit by over a dozen worker suicides that critics blamed on harsh conditions and a militaristic culture.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs denied the allegations.
Many Western companies - including toymaker Mattel which suffered a toxic lead paint scandal in 2007 - have struggled to regulate product quality across scores of suppliers in knotted Chinese supply chains, but the report said Apple's standards fell far short of its status as a leading global brand.
The nine-month survey - "The other face of Apple" - found that dozens of factory workers in eastern China working in factories assembling Apple products had fallen ill.
Lianjian Technology in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, which the green group say is one of Apple's major touchscreen suppliers, was accused of using N-Hexane, a toxic solvent, to clean touchscreens, leading to at least 47 factory workers being poisoned.
Another company named by the green group as a user of N-Hexane was Taiwan-based touchscreen chip maker Wintek. A Wintek spokesman said it had stopped using the chemical and all its employees had recovered.
"Apple's lack of responsiveness eventually made us quite shocked. It's the whole complacency that it doesn't have to be accountable to the NGOs, to the communities, even to the poisoned workers," Ma said.
An Apple spokeswoman in China, Carolyn Wu, said the company was "committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility," but had no direct response to the report.
The report said Apple didn't respond to repeated requests for information on problems at its suppliers.
