A screengrab from the documentary showing workers sleeping on the production-line
The full BBC documentary on working conditions in iPhone factories has been unofficially uploaded to YouTube. It probably won’t be too long before it gets pulled, so if you want to see it, watch it while you can – we’ve embedded the full video below …
The program alleged that Pegatron factories were breaking “standards on workers’ hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers.” Workers are filmed sleeping at their workstations, with one worker claiming he hadn’t been allowed a day off in 18 days.
In a letter to UK staff, senior VP of operations Jeff Williams said that both he and Tim Cook were “deeply offended” by the allegations, and that the BBC had refused to include both “facts and perspectives” on the claims which Apple had made available to the program makers.
Watch the video here – unfortunately with lots of ad-breaks.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaTl2kW6YU]
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Who doesnt enjoy a little nap on the company dime
I walked into a Government building where there were people that reviewed tax returns and there was always this one women that would have her head on her desk with a post it note on her computer screen that said “Wake me in 20 minutes”. So, this happens even with Government workers. I just didn’t have a camera handy to take a quick snapshot and post it. This was a while ago before smartphones existed. :-)
When I was 18 I worked 12 hours a day for 29 straight days at $2.90 an hour. It was my choice. I used the money for a trip to the Grand Canyon where I hiked across then back. In short, it was worth it and was a memorable experience.
Yeah, I understand how you feel. When I was 25, I worked from 8am all through the day and night until 2am the following day. Then 5 hours sleep and then another day from 8am-2am. Did this 7 days a week for about 3 months. The extra money was nice, but I would have to say that after 3 months, my body was also a little bit bombed.
So just to compare:
I worked more hours during the day&night – without sleeping on the job
I then paid my own bus fare home
I paid for food from supermarket and made my sandwiches for the day
I paid rent.
These Chinese workers:
Work what? 60+ hours a week?
Saturday/Sunday off?
Get free bus from factory to dormitory
Free dormitory to stay at?
Yes I understand it can get boring and the hours make you tired, been there done that, but fuck if that is something to complain about.
This is not an Apple problem. This is a china and it’s factories problem. They get paid to do they’re jobs properly.
awww you beat me to it.
Nice easy response bro. You win.
Since when is a customer responsible for how it’s suppliers behave? It’s like blaming the dog for the quality of the dog food, isn’t it? Foxconn and the other suppliers are who you should be chasing to change their own practices. And the Chinese and Indonesian governments. Not the end user. Ridiculous suggestion.
As I said previously. It’s a problem of China, not Apple. China as a country should regulate that. We can clearly see those Chinese people there are behaving very rude to the workers. First Foxconn should make it right and even China’s government.
Such a hypocritical documentary. Why single out Apple when Apple has by far done more than anybody else to improve working conditions in China? As if there is a company on earth as such a massive scale that can keep control of every single person that came in touch with any of the raw materials or assembly process for their products. This documentary only speaks about how fucked up China is and how fucked up the world is in general, it says very little about Apple. ANY corporation doing business in China faces the same or worse. Unfortunately these factories are all crooks and they will always behave during an audit while faking their reports the rest of the time. Its like BBC went on a rant after Apple dismissed them, its easy to point out flaws with a company that deals millions of people, its even easier to point out how much Apple has already done compared to everybody else.
They are doing it because Apple is as big as they are and makes the kind of profits that they do which is why they are picking on Apple. Apple also can’t switch outsourcing partners so quickly as it would disrupt their production. It takes a long time to build buildings, equip them and get lots of people signed up to mfg the products. They have opened up to more outsourcing companies to make their products because they have to, but unfortunately Foxconn or whomever the outsourcing company or mfg is the one that needs to be more responsible.
The other aspect is that Tim Cook said that they are going to do what they can and according to the video, there is still some problems. The problem we, as consumers have, is that we don’t know exactly when the filming was done and if there were improvements since it was filmed.
Why should we watch this smear campaign by the BBC.
Evidence eh, it sure does make some people uncomfortable. Maybe you should watch the doc before slandering it? Or would that challenge your preconceived ideas?
I would also call it a smear campaign… period. The company that Apple uses, nearly a dozen other big name company’s use. How about putting ALL their names on it. Not just Apple. How about showing the entire place, not just Apple’s section. Then blame only one company for something MANY are doing at the same location with the same factory.
I wanna leave my comments because I’m not that shocked by this video, I already had more than a clue on conditions of workers in some of these famous companies working for Apple, but more for hypocritical commentaries on this website or others talking about that news.
à) I agree that head of companies are directly responsible for the conditions for their workers, b) followed after by China government by applying more respectful conditions for them, However, if these companies followed most of the conditions they won’t be as competitive. I’m quite sure that if the cost even slightly increase for producing an Iphone, Apple will find another place/country to produce. It’s also true for other big companies name. But it’s well known that Foxconn, if you are in electronic industries, has the worst conditions for workers. But it’s above all Apple (and big names companies) which give instructions to Foxconn & co for the cost per unit produced and certainly a lot more conditions than that (ex : safety nets to avoid workers suicide certainly not because it’s unethically viable for Foxconn or even Apple but to avoid public scandal. I don’t even think that all those big players could severe big problems with justice or governments, but if they feel insensitive in front of the camera it will harm their image in front of their clients (you).
Like many here said “it’s just the fault of their suppliers not theirs” and typically they will cling to respond this defense in front of Court, in case of they will undergo any action ; and they will certainly react by denouncing others phone companies which will have suppliers who use the same degrading conditions for their workers.
But what I hate the most is that particularly Samsung and Apple even HTC and so on sell their phone at really high prices, and when they spend their turnover for their company they used it for communication, advertising, buying very large empty mobile shops, pointless sellers,…instead of demanding their subsidiaries to give more lively conditions for their workers by paying a more decent value for the electronic device they built. Once again at first sight, Apple is largely no responsible for the conditions of the workers of their subsidiaries, but in reality even if it’s unprovable that Apple and these big names companies who give the tons.
Apple and their heads are lying in such a huge shockingly way that makes me vomit even more than the rest. I’ll ask for their resignation but it won’t change anything. This situation considering the high price Apple charge their phones, they are the first who could change things. And to Apple big heads even if you don’t see it applying these rules will nonetheless give you a better image to the world of your company but will kill all your worst competitors and particularly those emerging and will eat you in the 3-4 years coming. Even if you still have fervent clients obsessed by Apple products, making most of your business counting on counts forever, isn’t a safe deal (even if a count remains a count, but still, I have faith in changes)
I know that here, there are many Apple fans but I hope you will understand.
Some interesting points you raise in your post.
I’m an Apple fan, but your point about Apple marking up prices so dramatically is more than just “sincerity” and borders on greed.
I’d prefer to give 10$ more for my iPhone and Apple to pay 100$ more towards the production costs.
If Apple is too greedy for that, then we can split 50/50 but I just feel that the markup price is so high, that Apple can bear to lose a few % profit.
I watched this, and found numerous inconsistencies in the journalism, like the fact that 3 journalists where employed only 1 shown on tv, yet it was not the 1 shown that had all the issues regarding excess working hours, 18 days in a row etc… They never put that in… Then there is the fact that Apple pay the tin mining company to mine the tin, and that company has to use the smelters, but the smelters buy illegally mned tin, how is that apples issue…???
And the biggest issue, is that while Apple continue to address the problem, they account for a relatively small proportion of the electronics business at these factories, yet it is always Apple that is in the news…
When will a news company grow a pair and actually report on the big companies that do NOTHING…!!!
It is also normal for asian staff to nap in breaks at there work stations, and i thought everyone new that, well everyone but the reporter…!!!
Ridiculous.
Agreed. Good luck trying to get your CM to do what you tell them to do. They cut corners not only on assembly methods but health and safety. This has always been going on, but what can we do, americans wont build phones for minimum wage, we wont even flip burgers for that pay rate. :/
The only thing apple can do now is dispatch a team who can educate people and show them the right procedure and give them some advanced safe machines to operate more safely! I agree with apple’s statement when they said only finding a solution is an answers, if they refuse all the tins from the Indonesia then all this people who only can risk there lives to earn some money will be jobless! in the end of the day thousands more unemployed people with hunger.
I have now watched the two videos that were uploaded to the youtube account and wow! Part of me is surprised and the other half is not. The easy knee-jerk reaction is to quit using Apple products, but then who do you go to? I guarantee that nearly all (if not all) android makers have the same issues. Even Blackberry most likely has this issue. So the issue isn’t the manufacturer. The problem lies squarely with the governments in those countries. The governments are failing to protect and provide the tools for a better life. Now I will say that Apple and the rest of these manufacturers could take a stand and boycott doing business in those countries, but that only benefits the company. The problem will still exist. It really is a complex issue that will not resolve itself over night. With all that said, I think Apple should assemble all their products in the United States. I would have no problem paying more for a device that said “Designed and Assembled in the USA” because I would be supporting Americans jobs. Well! That’s my 2 cents.
How is this all on Apple or any other company that uses suppliers from China? Apples obligation is to it’s shareholders. Yes they are a huge company with a ton of cash and like the woman in the video said they seem like they want to make the workers lives better and don’t shy away from negative criticism of how things are. But at the end of the day, those employees aren’t working for Apple.
These conditions don’t exist (at least to the same extent) in America because of government regulation and federa requirements. Since when is it a businesses responsibility to ensure that its supply chain is treating their employees well? That’s notion is absurd.
Apple does feel that responsibility, which I think is enormously to its credit – especially as in includes tiers 2 and 3 (ie. down to suppliers to suppliers to its suppliers). But yes, ultimately only government enforcement will create better conditions throughout the country, rather than just among Apple suppliers.
Did the BBC just take down the youTube video of their candy stand, I mean documentary. This might deserve a followup. There has to be more to this than a really, really late to the press clone story about “Apple factory conditions”.
It was pirated – I’m only surprised it lasted this long on YouTube.
As an Apple investor and long time supporter, I’m concerned about this report. I watched the entire thing and I think that the claims are valid about working conditions. I’d be shocked to find out that the same conditions or worse don’t exist for other companies though. I’m sure that they do. Singling out Apple seems pretty unfair. Look… there is a reason that China has the cheapest labor on earth. China allows workers to be exploited. We used to allow worker exploitation here in the USA too before the labor revolution. If China clamped down on the labor issues, labor costs would go up dramatically and companies would look to do business elsewhere. That’s is just a fact of life. Expecting this issue to be fixed by Apple alone is ridiculous. Is Apple to be held to a different standard than all other companies when hiring Chinese labor?
I think this documentary has two major issues which don’t surprise me because I know it’s largely fueled by sensationalism. The first is singling out and focusing on Apple like they’re the only company these factories manufacture for. This type of documentation I think easily corrupts naive viewers who don’t know any better and would believe all Pegatron and Foxconn do is assemble Apple products. They don’t, and I highly doubt these working conditions are specifically the result of the work they do for Apple, which brings me to the next major flaw which others have already pointed out.
Apple is not the real problem here, the real problem are the labor practices these factories can get away with in China the lack of effective action on the government’s part to crack down on it. Apple can set guidelines, and follow up with consequences if they aren’t followed, but its ridiculous to blame them for not preventing those guidelines from being broken. They do not own the factories, those workers are not their employees, and they are not the governing body over those businesses.
Now I have no problem with these working conditions being called out. They should as these workers should be treated more humanely and Apple should be concerned about it (as should every single other Foxconn and Pegatron business partner), but lets not pretend this is Apple going over there and treating those workers like machines, and lets not pretend these manufacturing companies are only producing Apple products.
Come on guys… pisses me off when people take cheap shots at “apple” or in this case “iPhone”. Those are the Chinese working conditions, period…
These conditions have zero to do with Apple or iPhone.
They’re better working conditions and (comparative) pay than a lot of people in the US and Western Europe get too.
“You can have candles and horses and be a little kinder to each other or let someone suffer immeasurably far away, just so you can leave a mean comment on YouTube while you’re taking a shit.” — Louis C.K.
What does this article tell me? It tells me that someone at BBC doesn’t like Apple and that they’re hoping this smear campaign will negatively affect Apple sales.
This is not a problem with Apple, this is a problem with companies in China that are not owned by Apple.
BBC fail.
epic fail, bbc, to distinguish a customer and its supply chain.
this is absurd… I mean the uptempo music says a lot.