Apple is back in the public eye after the publication of The Information, which reveals new details about the company’s reluctance to cut ties with suppliers that violate its ethical standards.
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According to The Information, in 2013, Apple learned that the Chinese company Suyin Electronics, which supplied it with components for the MacBook, used the labor of underage workers. Despite a demand for Suyin to stop this practice due to the risk of a breakup, after just three months, during an audit, Apple found she had employees aged 14.
However, instead of immediately ending its partnership with Suyin due to a violation of Apple’s ethical supply chain policy that prohibits child labor and which the company claims meets “highest standards,” it continued to rely on Suyin for more than three years.
What’s more, ten former members of Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Program Compliance team told The Information that, in addition to Suyin, there have been other instances where Apple has been slow to end business with suppliers who have repeatedly violated labor laws or have not sought to improve workplace safety. if it affected their profits.
In particular, Apple has also refused to sever ties with Biel Crystal, one of two suppliers of glass covers for iPhone screens, despite persistently poor safety at its workplace, concerns from Apple employees and reluctance by Biel Crystal to change anything. The reason was that ending the partnership with Biel Crystal would have left Apple less leverage on the second supplier, Lens Technology, and might have driven them to higher product prices.
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