The Fair Labor Association (FLA) has revealed that working conditions at Apple supplier factories in China are “above average” and better than those at garment factories.
The independent watchdog began its investigation earlier this week at plants belonging to Foxconn for Apple, the firm which assembles iPhones and iPads and which has come under the media spotlight in recent years for a spate of employee suicides.
Since then Foxconn has attempted to improve conditions, even increasing worker pay, but that hasn't stopped the negative publicity both it and Apple has received over the treatment of its hundreds of thousands of employees.
This investigation could prove more beneficial for Foxconn and Apple than previously thought, however, as initial comments from the FLA are remarkably positive.
“I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory,” said Auret van Heerden, president of the FLA, according to Reuters. “So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It's more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps ...The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/us-china-apple-idUSTRE81E1FQ20120215
