August 17, 2006
Like many of you, we were concerned by reports in the press a few weeks ago alleging poor working and living conditions at a manufacturing facility in China where iPods are assembled. Our Supplier Code of Conduct mandates that suppliers of Apple products follow specific rules designed to safeguard human rights, worker health and safety, and the environment. We take any deviation from these rules very seriously.
In response to the allegations, we immediately dispatched an audit team comprised of members from our human resources, legal and operations groups to carry out a thorough investigation of the conditions at the manufacturing site. The audit covered the areas of labor standards, working and living environment, compensation, overtime and worker treatment. The team interviewed over 100 randomly selected employees representing a cross-section of line workers (83%), supervisors (9%), executives (5%), and other support personnel (3%) including security guards and custodians. They visited and inspected factory floors, dormitories, dining halls, and recreation areas. The team also reviewed thousands of documents including personnel files, payroll data, time cards, and security logs. In total, the audit spanned over 1200 person-hours and covered over one million square feet of facilities.
To ensure the accuracy of the investigation, the team cross-referenced multiple sources of information from employees, management and personnel records. For example, working hours and overtime reported in the interviews were corroborated with line-shift reports, badge reader logs, and payroll records of those specific individuals to confirm that they were paid appropriately.
We found the supplier to be in compliance in the majority of the areas audited. However, we did find violations to our Code of Conduct, as well as other areas for improvement that we are working with the supplier to address. What follows is a summary of what we’ve learned, what’s already being done in response, and our commitment to future diligence and action.
Labor Standards
The team reviewed personnel files and hiring practices and found no evidence whatsoever of the use of child labor or any form of forced labor. This review included examining security records targeted at discovering false identification papers — an important check for companies serious about preventing illegal employment of any kind.
Working and Living Environment
The manufacturing facility supports over 200,000 employees (Apple uses less than 15% of that capacity) and has the services you’d expect in a medium city. The campus includes factories, employee housing, banks, a post office, a hospital, supermarkets, and a variety of recreational facilities including soccer fields, a swimming pool, TV lounges and Internet cafes. Ten cafeterias are also located throughout the campus offering a variety of menu choices such as fresh vegetables, beef, seafood, rice, poultry, and stir-fry noodles. In addition, employees have access to 13 different restaurants on campus. Employees were pleased with the variety and quality of food offerings.
The supplier owns and leases dormitories that are offered at no charge to employees, provided they help in cleaning common areas to maintain the facility. Workers are not required to live in these dormitories, although the majority do. Our team randomly selected and inspected a wide range of dormitories (both supplier-owned on-campus and off-site leased facilities) that collectively house over 32,000 people. Buildings are separated by gender, with female dorms containing a private bathroom/shower for each room and male dorm rooms typically sharing bathroom/shower facilities. The dorms have TV rooms, potable water, private lockers, free laundry service, and public telephones. Many also have ping-pong and snooker tables, and sitting/reading areas. All of the on-campus dorms have air conditioning. Visitors are permitted in the dorms, although a sign-in process is used for security purposes.
Our audit of on-site dormitories found no violations of our Code of Conduct. We were not satisfied, however, with the living conditions of three of the off-site leased dorms that we visited. These buildings were converted by the supplier during a period of rapid growth and have served as interim housing. Two of the dormitories, originally built as factories, now contain a large number of beds and lockers in an open space, and from our perspective, felt too impersonal. The third contained triple-bunks, which in our opinion didn’t provide reasonable personal space.
To address this interim housing situation, the supplier acquired additional land and is currently building new dormitories. These plans were in place prior to our audit, and will increase the total living space by 46% during the next four months.
Compensation
Our investigation confirmed that all workers earn at least the local minimum wage, and our sample audit of payroll records showed that more than half were earning above minimum wage. Employees also have the opportunity to earn bonuses. In addition, the supplier provides a comprehensive medical plan including free annual checkups.
We did find, however, that the pay structure was unnecessarily complex. An employee’s wage was comprised of several elements (base pay, skill bonus, attendance bonus, housing allowance, meal allowance, overtime), making it difficult to understand and communicate to employees. This structure effectively failed to meet our Code of Conduct requirement that how workers are paid must be clearly conveyed. The supplier has since implemented a simplified pay structure that meets the Code of Conduct.
We also discovered that the process for reporting overtime was manual and monthly, and while not a violation of the Code of Conduct, it was subject to human error and relied too much on memory for dispute resolution. To address this issue, the supplier will link the payroll system and electronic badge system, which will automate the recording of hours worked and pay calculations. This update will be completed by October 1.
Overtime
We found no instances of forced overtime and employees confirmed in interviews that they could decline overtime requests without penalty. We did, however, find that employees worked longer hours than permitted by our Code of Conduct, which limits normal workweeks to 60 hours and requires at least one day off each week. We reviewed seven months of records from multiple shifts of different productions lines and found that the weekly limit was exceeded 35% of the time and employees worked more than six consecutive days 25% of the time. Although our Code of Conduct allows overtime limit exceptions in unusual circumstances, we believe in the importance of a healthy work-life balance and found these percentages to be excessive.
The supplier has enacted a policy change to enforce the weekly overtime limits set by our Code of Conduct. The policy change has been communicated to supervisors and employees and a management system has been implemented to track compliance with the Code of Conduct. Supervisors must receive approval from upper level management for any deviation.
Worker Treatment
Employees work in factories that are generally bright, clean and modern with air-conditioned assembly line areas, and are provided with protective gear. There’s an employee grievance process in place, including a telephone hotline, a CEO mailbox for complaints and employee suggestion boxes.
Our interviews with employees revealed areas of both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. A majority of employees interviewed were pleased with the work environment and specifically noted the opportunity for advancement, widespread year-end bonuses, and the reputation of the supplier in the industry. Additionally, employees consistently mentioned that they felt safe and secure in both the workplace and the dormitories.
Employees expressed dissatisfaction with some aspects of the workplace. The single largest complaint (approximately 20% of interviewed workers) was the lack of overtime during non-peak periods. The second largest complaint (less than 10%) was the transportation schedule for employees living in off-campus dorms, which they felt was inadequate outside of working hours. Results of the interviews have been shared with management, and will be addressed where appropriate. For example, the transportation schedule is being reviewed for adjustment.
During our interviews with employees, we explicitly asked every line worker whether they had ever been subjected to or witnessed objectionable disciplinary punishment. Two employees reported that they had been disciplined by being made to stand at attention. While we did not find this practice to be widespread, Apple has a zero tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of workers that could be interpreted as harsh. The supplier has launched an aggressive manager and employee training program to ensure such behavior does not occur in the future.
The Future
Recognizing that some aspects of workplace auditing (such as health and safety) lie beyond our current expertise, we’ve engaged the services of Verité, an internationally recognized leader in workplace standards dedicated to ensuring that people around the world work under safe, fair and legal conditions. We are committed to ensuring compliance with our Code of Conduct and will complete audits of all final assembly suppliers of Mac and iPod products in 2006.
We recognize that monitoring compliance is an ongoing process requiring continual progress reviews. When violations are discovered in any supplier, we will require corrective action plans, with a focus on prevention and systemic solutions. We will also ensure that action plans are implemented and in cases where a supplier’s efforts in this area do not meet our expectations, their contracts will be terminated.
We are encouraged with the actions to date in response to our audit. However, we realize that auditing compliance is only one step in the journey toward driving change. We have also joined the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) Implementation Group, which has established industry-wide standards and offers valuable resources for evaluating suppliers. The EICC was a key benchmark when our own Code of Conduct was created and as an industry leader, Apple will make important contributions to this group.
Apple is committed to the highest standard of social responsibility in everything we do and will always take necessary action accordingly. We are dedicated to ensuring that working conditions are safe and employees are treated with respect and dignity wherever Apple products are made.
中文版
關於iPod製造的報告
和許多人一樣，我們非常關注幾周前有關iPod中國製造廠工作條件惡劣的指控。我們的供應商行爲準則“Supplier Code of Conduct”（供應商行爲準則，譯者注）要求所有蘋果產品供應商遵守其中條款，以達到保護人權及環境、保障工人健康及安全的目的。我們對執行該準則要求非常嚴格以防任何偏離。
作爲迴應，我們很快派出一個由人力資源部、法律及運營部門組成的調查小組，親赴富士康龍華工廠展開調查，範圍涉及勞動標準、工作及生活環境、薪酬、加班及勞工待遇等。調查小組隨機訪問了100多名工人，其中83%的一線工人、9%的工長、5%的管理人員及3%的後勤人員（包括保安及門衛）。調查小組還現場調查了廠房、宿舍、食堂及休閒區等，查閱了數千份文件，包括個人檔案、工資條、打卡紀錄及安全日誌等。總體而言，調查小組的工作時間超過1200個人力小時(person-hour)，現場查看區域超過100萬平方英尺。
爲了保證調查結果的準確性，調查組綜合參考了員工、管理層等各種來源的信息。例如，工作時間及加班數據綜合參考了值班報告、工資記錄等各方面信息，以證實工人獲得了適當報酬。
調查組認爲，在大部分調查項目中，該供應商遵守了蘋果的規定，但調查組的確發現了違反“供應商行爲準則”的行爲及需要改善之處，調查組正與該供應商着手解決。以下是調查結果及對該結果的反饋。
勞動標準
調查組查閱了個人文檔並監督了招聘過程，未發現任何僱傭童工或強制勞動的行爲，調查方式包括檢查是否存在僞造的身份文件等。這是一項非常嚴格的檢查，以防止公司有任何非法僱用行爲。
工作及生活環境
該製造廠擁有超過20萬名員工(其中從事蘋果產品製造的不足15%)，相當於一箇中型城市。廠區內有工廠、員工宿舍、銀行、一家郵局、一家醫院、超市和足球場、游泳池等衆多休閒設施、電視機房及網吧等。整個廠區遍佈多家員工自助餐廳，食物品種豐富，包括新鮮蔬菜、牛肉、海鮮、米飯、豬肉、麪條等。此外，廠區還有13家各具特色的餐廳供員工選擇。員工對食物的種類和質量均感到滿意。
該供應商自建宿舍或者在外租用宿舍免費提供給員工居住，並要求員工負責公共區域的清潔。儘管該供應商未強制要求，但大部分工人都住在宿舍。調查小組隨機檢查了大量宿舍(包括廠區內宿舍及在外租用宿舍)，涉及員工超過3.2萬人。宿舍按男女劃分，女員工宿舍有單獨衛生間，男員工宿舍一般爲公用衛生間。宿舍內配有電視房、私人櫃子、免費洗衣服務及公用電話。許多宿舍樓還配有乒乓球室、檯球室、閱覽室等。廠區內的宿舍全部安裝了空調。來訪者可進入宿舍，但出於安全考慮，他們在簽字後方可進入。
調查組在廠區內宿舍未發現違反“供應商行爲準則”的情況，但調查組對訪問的三家廠外宿舍的居住環境感到不滿。這些房屋是供應商在員工人數激增的情況下作爲臨時宿舍爲員工租用的。其中在兩間原本是爲工廠建設的宿舍，調查組看到一個開放區域內放置了大量牀位和櫃子，從調查組角度看，這種環境過於缺乏隱私。第三間宿舍包括三層牀位，我們的意見是不適合提供給人居住。
爲了解決臨時宿舍問題，該供應商已購買了新土地並正在建設新宿舍樓，此項計劃在調查之前就已制定完畢，在未來四個月內，新宿舍樓可將廠區的居住面積提高46%。
薪酬
調查小組證實，所有工人的工資均達到當地最低工資標準，調查組查閱的工資記錄顯示，至少一半工人的收入超過了最低標準。除了工資，員工還有機會獲得獎金。此外，該供應商還提供一年一次的免費體檢等綜合醫療福利。
但是，調查小組發現，該供應商的工資結構過於複雜。員工工資包括基本工資、技能獎金、考勤獎金、食宿補貼、加班費等，計算方式較難與員工解釋並溝通。這種工資結構明顯違反了“供應商行爲準則”有關向員工明確傳達工資計算方式的要求。不過，該供應商已按照“供應商行爲準則”要求，採取了更爲簡單的工資計算方式。
調查組還發現，加班時間主要通過人工方式按月計算，雖然這種做法未違反“供應商行爲準則”，但可能出現人爲失誤，出現爭議時也缺乏文字記錄證明。爲解決此問題，該供應商將把工資系統與電子打卡系統聯網，自動計算加班時間及加班費。這項系統升級工作將於10月1日完成。
加班
調查組未發現強制加班情況，受訪員工也證實，他們即使拒絕加班也不會受到處罰。但調查組發現，員工加班時間超過了“供應商行爲準則”有關最高每週工作60小時、至少休息一天的規定。調查組檢查了多個產品線工人7個月的加班情況，發現35%的人的每週工作時間超過“供應商行爲準則”上限，25%的人一週連續工作六天。儘管“供應商行爲準則”允許在特定情況下出現加班超時情況，但調查組認爲保持工作與生活的平衡至關重要。
該供應商已頒佈了新規定，以執行“供應商行爲準則”對每週加班上限的規定，該規定已向工長及工人傳達。該供應商將實施一項管理制度，監督對“供應商行爲準則”的執行情況。特殊情況下，工長必須經過上一級管理層的批准才能採取有違規定的措施。
員工待遇
員工工作的工廠總體來說明亮、乾淨、現代化，裝配線區域配有空調，並提供了保護用具。工廠設有員工投訴程序，包括熱線電話、負責接收投訴的CEO郵箱和員工建議箱。
調查組對員工的採訪發現既有滿意的地方又有不如人意之處。大多數受訪員工對工作環境感到滿意，特別是晉升的機會、範圍較廣的年終獎金、供應商在業界的聲譽等方面。此外，員工經常提到他們在工作地點和宿舍都感到安全。
員工對於工作地點的某些方面表達了不滿。抱怨最多的是在工廠淡季加班不足，大約佔受訪工人的20%，抱怨第二多的是對住在廠外的員工的交通安排，員工們感到下班後車次安排不足，有此抱怨的大約佔受訪工人的不到10%。採訪結果已與管理層溝通，將在適當情況下解決。比如，班車時刻正在進行檢查調整。
在採訪員工時，調查組明確地問過方方面面的工人，他們是否受到過或者看到過令人不快的紀律懲罰。兩名員工表示他們曾被要求立正站立。雖然調查組並未發現這種情況很普遍，但蘋果實施的是零容忍政策，任何粗暴對待工人的事例都不能容忍。該供應商已經啓動了積極的經理和員工訓練計劃，以確保此類行爲不再發生。
未來
鑑於對工作場所某些方面的檢查（比如健康和安全）超出了我們目前的能力，我們已邀請Verité提供服務，Verité是國際公認的工作標準方面的領袖，該機構專注於確保世界各地的人們能夠在安全、公平和合法的條件下工作。我們承諾確保符合我們的行動守則，將在2006年完成所有Mac和iPod最終裝配供應商的檢查。
我們認識到監督供應商遵守守則是一個持續的過程，需要持續的審查。如果發現該供應商違反守則，我們將要求該供應商拿出整改行動計劃，我們注重預防和系統性的解決方案。我們還將確保行動計劃的實施，如果該供應商在這方面的行動沒有達到我們的預期，供應合同將終止。
目前爲止，該供應商針對審查的採取的行動令我們感到鼓舞。然而，我們認識到審查是否遵守守則只是促成變化的一步，我們已加入電子工業行動守則（EICC）實施機構，該機構已建立業界標準並提供評估供應商的有價值的資源。EICC是一個我們行動準則制訂的重要標尺，作爲業界領袖，蘋果將對這一機構做出重要貢獻。
蘋果承諾在所做每件事上都承擔最高標準的社會責任，並將始終採取必要的相應行動。我們致力於確保所有生產蘋果產品的地方工作條件安全，員工得到尊重和尊嚴的對待。