Apple is at the top when it comes to business. If it were a country, it would be the 55th richest in the world. It is in the perfect position to be able to do something about its supply chain, and it isn’t something that its leadership has ignored. It has updated its supplier responsibility website with details about how it is cleaning up the supply chain in terms of its conditions for workers.
Eliminating recruitment fees
One of the key things to note about this update is the section about Eliminating Recruitment Fees and Bonded Labor.
Until now, some overseas recruiters would charge the worker directly for getting the job. Sometimes, passports would be withheld by the recruiters until the fee could be paid. It’s a form of slavery, and it’s good to see that Apple is doing its best to eradicate it.
Empowering Workers
Apple demonstrating its keenness to create an educated workforce. Some of the highlights of the 2015 report in this area are:
Trained 2.3 million workers on their rights in 2014
Launched a new mobile, app-based iPad education program at 10 sites
Expanded SEED (Supplier Employee Education and Development) participants by over 379,000 in 2014, totaling over 861,000 since 2008
Health and Safety
Specifically regarding EHS (Environmental Health and Safety), the improvements are summed up in three key points:
Enrolled 156 more suppliers and 392 more participants in the EHS academy
Launched more than 870 EHS Academy projects in 2014
Graduated the first class of EHS Academy participants
Once again – great news. Although Apple can’t oversee all of the operations that take place in its supply chain, it can (and has) put in place the measures that makes Health and Safety training easy to access.
Check out the complete PDF to get more details. I think we can now see why Tim Cook was so offended when the BBC made that documentary about Apple.