Foxconn hiring lifestyle and safety experts to improve worker conditions at Apple factories

A report from Bloomberg today confirmed Foxconn is interested in hiring new safety and security experts to help improve working conditions in facilities responsible for supplying Apple products. Foxconn’s retail division chairman Louis Woo confirmed the job listings, which include a “lifestyle manager” responsible for maintaining worker dorms and healthcare, a safety and security expert, and two fire chiefs:

The lifestyle manager will be responsible for conditions at the company’s dormitories, canteens and health departments, according to the advertisement. The safety and security post requires a college degree in criminal investigation or legal- related disciplines, while the fire chiefs must have at least four years of related experience.

We already know that Apple allowed the Fair Labor Association access to its suppliers abroad with initial results of Foxconn facility audits expected within weeks. Apple also continues to work with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and other NGOs, as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York (according to USAToday) to perform independent audits of factories in China. Following controversy fueled largely by The New York Times’ reports, Foxconn announced last month it would raise wages of entry-level workers in Shenzhen by 16 percent to 25 percent. However, Fair Labor Association Chief Executive Officer Auret van Heerden recently said the audits are “finding tons of issues.”

Yesterday, a report from NPR profiled 25 workers that were injured in an explosion at a Pegatron-owned iPad factory in Shanghai, China in December.