The death of a 15-year-old worker was not caused by working conditions
at a Pegatron Corp factory, according to medical exports sent to the
factory by Apple Inc.
The boy died of pneumonia, the medical
delegation said, after he apparently used someone else's ID to get a job
at the Shanghai factory, which makes products for Apple.
Apple has taken various measures in response to questions on whether its
products are made in what amount to sweatshops. It acted after about a
dozen suicides, starting in 2010, at its assembler Foxconn.
The
world's most valuable technology company commissioned an investigation
of suppliers' Chinese factories last year by the Fair Labor Association
(FLA), which in a report on Thursday said working hours at Foxconn now
comply with its standard.
"Last month, we sent independent medical
experts from the U.S. and China to conduct an investigation of the
(Pegatron) factory," Apple said in a statement on Thursday. "While they
have found no evidence of any link to working conditions there, we
realize that is of little comfort to the families who have lost their
loved ones.
"Apple has a long-standing commitment to providing a
safe and healthy workplace for every worker in our supply chain, and we
have a team working with Pegatron at their facility to ensure that
conditions meet our high standards."
The Taiwanese company, which
assembles Apple's iPhone and iPad mini, had already concluded the death
was not related to work. The employee had only recently joined, and the
assembly line environment should not cause pneumonia, Pegatron spokesman
Charles Lin said.
The employee used his 21-year-old cousin's
identification to apply for the job, so the factory did not know he was
underage, Lin also said.
China Labor Watch, a New York-based
rights group, said the worker, who died in October, had a pre-employment
physical examination on September 4 which showed he was in good health.
"Pegatron
has strict measures in place to verify workers' ages before and after
they are hired, and we work with health and safety experts to provide a
safe working environment for each and every worker," Pegatron said in a
statement.
Lin said three other employee deaths this year, in
March and April, were caused by various medical conditions unrelated to
work at the factory.
OvertimeSeparately, the FLA said in a
report released on Thursday that three Chinese factories operated by
Foxconn, Apple's largest contract manufacturer, now limit working hours
to 60 per week. Foxconn is the holding company for Taiwan's Hon Hai
Precision Industry Co Ltd.
"FLA's expectation is that Apple,
working with Foxconn, will continue to rigorously monitor working hours
to ensure that they comply with the FLA standard of 60 hours per week
but also make progress toward the Chinese legal limit of 49 hours per
week," FLA President and Chief Executive Auret van Heerden said in a
statement.
Washington-based FLA in March last year set a deadline
of July 1 this year to comply with China's weekly limit and
36-hours-per-month overtime cap, but Foxconn said it needed more time.
At
that time, the FLA said some of the 170,000 employees at the factories
in Longhua, Chengdu and Guanlan worked up to 80 hours of overtime per
month. By May this year, the FLA said Foxconn had resolved 98 percent of
issues raised in its initial investigation, including cutting working
hours and overtime.
Apple said Foxconn had shortened its average
work week to 53 hours. "Our suppliers must live up to the toughest
standards in the industry if they want to keep doing business with
Apple," it said.
Many Foxconn workers - migrants from other parts
of China - have said they do not want overtime to be redueced they want
to make as much money as possible in a short time.
London:
Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp said it would be able to sell its One Mini smartphone in Britain after the Court of Appeal temporarily suspended an earlier ruling banning sales of the phone due to a patent infringement.
Lenovo has expanded its S range with the introduction of new mid-range
smartphones, the Lenovo S650 and Lenovo S930. The Chinese manufacturer
announced the new S series smartphones in Russia, and also revealed the
prices for the new phones, although it has not detailed the global
availability of the Lenovo S650 and Lenovo S930 smartphones.
Microsoft Corp is considering Qualcomm Inc Chief Operating Officer Steve
Mollenkopf as a candidate for its new chief executive officer,
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, as it reaches the final stages of a
four-month search process.
