Apple’s supply chain worker conditions exposed

Poor treatment of workers in factories supplying heavyweight Apple have been exposed by an undercover report by BBC Panorama. Featuring never-seen-before coverage from inside factories, it shows workers sleeping whilst operating machinery out of sheer exhaustion by the number of "mandatory hours" they are being forced to work. Apple has worked closely with factories in the region to implement standards designed to protect workers but the Panorama investigation found that these were being routinely breached by factory management. One undercover reporter, working in a factory that produced parts for Apple's computer range, was forced to work 18 days in a row despite repeatedly asking for a day off. Another report said (after a 16 hour shift): "Every time I got back to the dormitories, I wouldn't want to move. "Even if I was hungry I wouldn't want to get up to eat. I just wanted to lie down and rest. I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress." The poor conditions in Chinese factories have previously come to light when 14 workers were killed in a Foxconn factory in 2010. Following those suicides, Apple implemented new standards including limiting the total hours workers would work in a week and limiting the amount ...

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