Fair Labor Association to inspect Foxconn, at Apple's behest

Apple has, in an official statement confirmed that the Fair Labor Association (FLA) would begin conducting special voluntary audits of their final assembly suppliers, which include Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China. These evaluations by the FLA are a part of the guidelines Apple Chief, Tom Cook had listed out, late last month, when the working conditions of the labourers in Apple's supplier factories came under the scanner.

Working towards the better

Beginning yesterday morning, FLA President, Auret van Heerden and his team of labor rights experts began inspecting the labor conditions at the Cupertino-based company's facility in Shenzhen, called Foxconn city. The official statement further elaborates that as a part of their inspection, the FLA team will conduct interviews with the labourers in the factories, questioning them about several key issues, like their working and living conditions, which also include issues of health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management, among other aspects. The team, according to this statement will also conduct an inspection of manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, while also reviewing all documents testifying all procedures, carried out at all stages of employment.

In his statement, Apple Chief, Tim Cook stated, "We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers. The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports."

Apple's suppliers have reportedly pledged their complete co-operation to this assessment, and have offered unrestricted access to their operations. The FLA, on their part will publish the results of their assessment on their website - www.fairlabor.org, in early March. The FLA plans to also carry out Similar inspections at the Quanta and Pegatron facilities, later this Spring. By the time they wrap up with their assessments of these facilities, they would have covered 90 percent of their task.