From the history of Apple: How Apple became interested in the working conditions in the factories of its suppliers

Apple representatives like to and repeatedly let it be known that for them customers and users come first. But how is it with its employees - or rather with the employees of Apple's contractual partners, especially in Asian countries? Few people had any illusions about the conditions in the factories there, but when news began to spread in 2013 of numerous deaths at a Shanghai factory operated by Pegatron, the public began to raise the alarm.

The issue of grossly substandard conditions in Chinese factories began to be discussed more intensively after Apple's meteoric rise after the turn of the millennium. The Cupertino giant is understandably far from the only technology company that, for various reasons, operates a significant part of its production in China. But it is definitely more visible compared to most of its competitors, which is why it also faced intense criticism in this regard. In addition, the inhumane conditions in the Chinese factories were in stark contrast to Apple's longstanding commitment to human rights.

When you think of Apple, most people immediately think of Foxconn, which is responsible for a significant part of the production of components for Apple products. Similar to Pegatron, there have also been several employee deaths at Foxconn factories, and Apple has again faced heavy criticism from the public and the media in connection with these events. Even Steve Jobs did not improve the situation much, who rather unhappily described the mentioned factories as "quite nice" in one of the interviews related to these events. But the series of deaths of Pegatron employees definitively confirmed that this is far from being an isolated problem at Foxconn.

Particularly alarming to everyone was the fact that the youngest Pegatron employee to die was only fifteen years old. The youngest victim reportedly died of pneumonia after having to spend long hours working on the iPhone 5c production line. Fifteen-year-old Shi Zhaokun secured a job on the production line at Pegatron using a fake ID that said he was twenty years old. During the first week spent working at the factory alone, he had worked seventy-nine hours. Chinese labor rights activist groups have begun pressuring Apple to open an investigation into the deaths.

Apple later admitted that it had sent a team of doctors to the Pegatron facility. But the experts came to the conclusion that the working conditions did not directly lead to the death of the fifteen-year-old employee. “Last month, we sent an independent team of medical experts from the United States and China to conduct an investigation at the factory. Although they found no evidence of a link to local working conditions, we realized that this was not enough to comfort the families who lost loved ones here. Apple has a long-standing commitment to providing a safe and healthy work environment for every supply chain employee, and our team is working with Pegatron on site to ensure conditions meet our high standards,” Apple said in an official statement.

In Pegatron, as a result of this affair, among other things, facial recognition with the help of special technologies was introduced as part of the prevention of the employment of underage workers. Those interested in the job had to have their documents officially verified, and the match of the face with the photo on the documents was verified by artificial intelligence. At the same time, Apple has intensified its efforts to humanize working conditions in the factories of its component suppliers.

Source: Cult of Mac