Pegatron: Apple hasn’t informed us about forthcoming labor audits

9to5 Staff | Feb 14 2012 - 4:50 am PT

Apple’s contract manufacturer Pegatron Technology of Taiwan is unaware of any forthcoming labor inspections at its Asian plants because its client has not officially tipped them about labor audits, according to Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin tells to Bloomberg. Lin was reacting to yesterday’s announcement by Apple of California that the first audits in cooperation with the Fair Labor Association have started at Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China.

Pegatron Corp., a maker of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, said it hasn’t been informed of any pending inspections of factory work conditions by labor groups, a day after the U.S. company said checks would start this spring. Pegatron is aware of Apple’s corporate social responsibility policies, Charles Lin, chief financial officer of the Taipei-based company, said by telephone today. The client hasn’t informed him about any upcoming audits, Lin said.

Apple previously confirmed that audits at Pegatron and Quanta Computer, the company assembling Mac notebooks, are due this spring. The company said the results of FLA audits will be made available on its website at the end of March. In the wake of the Foxconn scandal, a month ago Apple became the first technology company admitted to the FLA. That announcement followed Apple’s release of 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report that for the first time named 156 companies currently supplying components for Apple products, which left only three percent of suppliers absent from the list.

Pegatron, an Asustek spin-off, recently began assembling iPhones alongside Apple’s long-time manufacturing partner Foxconn. The company is hoping to help make some of the 65 million iPad 3s in time for an early-March launch. According to Chinese-language Commercial Times, the similarities between Apple’s MacBook Air and Asustek’s Zenbook instigated Apple to exercise its supply chain influence and force Pegatron to drop new Zenbook orders from Asustek or else risk losing orders for iOS devices.