Cutting the human cost of technology

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 7 Sep 2010 at 11:21

Apple has had a bumper year of iPad and iPhone sales, but a string of suicides and tales of terrible working conditions have cast a shadow over its success.

Since the beginning of this year, ten factory workers have died after throwing themselves off the roof of the Foxconn facility in Shenzhen, China, which manufactures for Apple as well as for HP and Dell.

Microsoft and other tech firms also came under fire this year after a report showed the China-based KYE factory, which manufactures some Microsoft – branded peripherals, had children as young as 14 working 15-hour shifts in silence without breaks for just 65¢ an hour.

“We are like prisoners,” one worker told the National Labor Committee, the charity that published the report. “We do not live a life, only work.”

Both firms have promised investigations, with Apple’s Steve Jobs saying: “We are all over this.” But what can actually be done?

“Many of the big electronics brands have codes of conduct that state that their suppliers should respect workers’ rights, but the implementation is quite a difficult task,” admits Irene Schipper, a researcher at campaign group makeITfair. She said many tech firms have joined forces to create working groups to produce codes of conduct.

Teaming up also means competing companies can take action at the same time, making pricing pressures less of an issue, explains Randall Weston, a supply chain expert with Gartner.

Auditing and investigating

One such group is the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), which produces a code to “improve working and environmental conditions”. Admirable goals, but it’s questionable how well it’s enforced, given that the EICC counts among its members Apple, Microsoft and even Foxconn.

So membership isn’t enough; companies need to ensure enforcement. Apple produces an annual CSR report detailing the hundreds of annual audits it takes of its partner factories, but hasn’t released details of its plans for Foxconn.

Microsoft promised to have auditors at the KYE plant the week after the report was released. But months on, the firm hasn’t yet made any results public. A spokesperson sent this statement to PC Pro: “Microsoft takes these types of claims seriously, and takes appropriate measures in regard to any findings of vendor misconduct.”