If you are someone who is aware of Apple’s past ordeal with labour laws, by the end of this article you’ll agree that the iPhone maker dodged a huge bullet with their recent move!
In the latest news, it has been found out that the Cupertino, California based tech giant pulled the plug on new business with Pegatron Corp, a firm that assembled iPhone devices. Apple discovered the company was involved in labour violations at a student workers’ program and immediately moved to suspend the prospect of conducting any future business with them.
In a statement about the same, Apple mentioned that they discovered the issue of labour law violations of the Taiwanese manufacturer several weeks ago. Pegatron Corp was apparently misclassifying student workers in order to allow some of them to work night shifts as well as overtime, both of which are strictly denied as per Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct.
Pegatron is one of the many assemblers the iPhone maker have been working with to manufacturer the four new iPhone models which come equipped with 5G. Thus, the one obvious question that comes up here is – Will this suspension affect their production volume?
Well, the answer to that is, No!
Apple has struck off any future business possibilities with the Taiwanese firm however their current deal is still in place. When it comes to the expiry of this ongoing contract, the tech giant can easily offload Pegatron’s share of work to its rival Luxshare Precision Industry Co. which is on track to becoming the first mainland iPhone assembler firm.
It is a good thing that this time Apple was swift to take action against such a manufacturer because this isn’t the first time the tech giant had a brush with labour laws outside the U.S.
In 2010, the iPhone maker’s main manufacturing partner Foxconn provoked a huge backlash and outrage against the brand. Several workers had committed suicide over harsh working environments at the plant.
Soon after taking notice of it, Apple had to publicly admit that many of the facilities wherein the high-end devices were being manufactured were poorly treatment their workers, were in violation of numerous labour laws as well as made use of child labour.
As a result, there was a lot of bad press against Apple and soon they had to develop proper standards and then upbraid their manufacturers to adhere to them strictly as otherwise, they would lose business from the tech giant.
This time in Pegatron’s vase, Apple said that they didn’t find any evidence of forced or underage labour but instead found falsified paperwork from the supplier which aimed to hide the violations.
Pegatron commenting about the same mentioned that the manager who oversaw the entire student worker program has been fired as a result of this incident and that they have taken quick action to strengthen their procedures.
Currently, according to the Taiwanese manufacturer, all student workers are off the production lines and arrangements have been made for them to return to their schools or home with proper compensation for their work.
All in all, Apple stopped another humongous PR disaster which was just waiting to blow up. Thankfully, the company ensured that iPhone 12 devices wouldn’t be called out for being a product of exploiting factory labourers.
We will keep you updated on all future developments. Until then, stay tuned.
