According to a new investigation performed by Amnesty International, Apple is one of several technology companies using cobalt mined by child labor in their lithium-ion batteries. The report claims that Apple, Sony, Samsung, and Microsoft are all using the cobalt mined by child labor, as are electric car makes like Volkswagen and Daimler.
There are a handful of steps before the cobalt actually gets to an iPhone, however. Traders first purchase the mined cobalt from small producers, then sell it to Congo Dongfang Mining, which is a subsidiary of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd, a Chinese mineral retailer. Battery manufacturers are next to acquire the cobalt, using it to produce the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones like the iPhone.
Amnesty International conducted interviews with 87 current and former cobalt miners, 17 of which were children. The children told the organization that they worked 12 hours a day in the mines, carrying heavy loads and earning between one and two dollars per day. One 14-year-old boy stated that he would work 24 hour shifts in the tunnels. There are an estimated 40,000 children working in mines throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some as young as seven.
Regarding the Amnesty International report, Apple issued a statement to the BBC. The company reaffirmed that it has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to the use of child labor in its supply chain. Apple says it is currently investigating the claims against its cobalt supplier.
“Underage labour is never tolerated in our supply chain and we are proud to have led the industry in pioneering new safeguards. We are currently evaluating dozens of different materials, including cobalt, in order to identify labour and environmental risks as well as opportunities for Apple to bring about effective, scalable and sustainable change.”
When a supplier is found to be violating child labor laws, Apple forces it to perform the following tasks:
- fund the worker’s safe return home
- finance the worker’s education at a school chosen by the worker or his/her family
- continue to pay the worker’s wages
- offer him or her a job when he or she reaches legal age to work.
Every year Apple releases a Supplier Responsibility Progress Report that discloses information discovered in audits of its suppliers around the world. Last year, the company dropped four smelters from its supply chain after they refused a conflict-free audit. In 2014, Apple was put under fire for a BBC documentary that claimed to show the negative working environment of Apple’s supply chain. Following the accusations, Tim Cook said he was “deeply offended” by the allegations and that Apple is constantly working to improve working conditions.
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Bullshit happens in other countries but everyone blames Apple, News at 11.
Eh, it’s an Apple-centric blog.
Why is Apple alone responsible for the world not being perfect? /s
If there is a single issue in any supply chain that leads to Apple, everyone wags their shaming finger at Apple. Enough already. I do realize that Apple being the largest company is a target, but being one of the few companies that is open about their attempts to address these awful workplace issues should not make them the largest target.
Several companies were pointed out by Amnesty International not just Apple. Your the worlds richest company you are going to get more attention then everyone else.
Yes Apple does all it can to monitor its suppliers and is very transparent about about their suppliers shortfalls, Apple will never get the praise it deserves for being transparent and trying to cut down on work hours and underage workers. You try to cheaply produce your products in third world countries you are going to be subject to your products being made by underage workers or workers that are treated poorly
There are a lot of companies to blame that have been pointed out but Apple gets the most attention because of its size. You just notice apple a lot more because, well, you are browsing an Apple fan forum.
Open? Find me one reference to cobalt or batteries on Apple’s web site or in their supplier responsibility report.
I think we all know that children produce the highest-grade cobalt. They can sift minerals more accurately with their tiny hands and sharp, innocent eyes. It’s the price we have to pay, so we might as well do so knowingly.
If anything we are paying a premium for child labor.
Such is life in some countries and to be able to exist young labour is used to feed the family.
Thankfully Apple is a responsible company. There is no need for child labour. The issue is greed, exploitation and coercion.
Well the facts may not be in yet, Amnesty has made allegations before deemed baseless later. However why are they not going after the Congo and Chinese governments ? The mining company is Chinese, the mines are in the congo. Or does Amnesty in its paternal thinking see them as somehow exempt?
Sorry if i sound cynical, but i don’t expect any better from what is a Soros secretly-funded company. I saw how they handled Syria (but let’s not bring this up in a US-based site). They speak up where and how they see fit for their “interests”
Every business and every person on the planet “speak up where and how they see for their “interests”, which is why you mentioned a “Soros secretly-funded company”. Conspiracy theories are your thing, which is why you spoke up about it. All valid points of course, but you, like I, are no different.
In “poor” Countries child labor is sometimes the only way a family can get a financial income – so just stopping using children can have real bad, unintended, consequences. It should not be so, of course, but this is often the reality of the situation. Do you want to pay the Congo and others, a whole lot of money to stop this practice ?
If Apple had any idea of child laborers Apple would have responded immediately. Apple has shown many times to take up issues of this type and will do the same here. But blaming Apple when there are several companies that use the same company isn’t right. Especially knowing Apple doesn’t take these issues lightly and seems to be the only company that actually does anything about it. I don’t here HP, Dell, Samsung, or any other company respond to any of these types of human rights issues. Maybe the news should focus on those other companies that do NOTHING, not Apple.
There are instances of child labor in some of the suppliers of a product (cobalt), that is used by some other companies in their products (batteries), which in turn are used by still other companies in their own products (phones, laptops, tablets, cars, TVs, etc., etc., etc.).
This has obviously been going on for years, and it has obviously been difficult to find and control. Amnesty International is just as much at fault for allowing this to go on for years, and only reporting on it now (after they were finally able to trace some instances of child labor in those African cobalt mines).
Cobalt is used as an element in manufacture of components purchased and used by many companies in their own products around the world. Amnesty International naming just a few of the many companies by name, and forgetting about the thousands of other companies around the world, is irresponsible and makes it seem that Amnesty International is being prejudicial toward a handful of companies, but not toward the many other companies (large corporations and small businesses) that make the vast majority of products purchased by consumers and businesses around the world.
I grieve for you people, I really do. It saddens me deeply that the comments on this article are trying to justify child labor. Come on, seriously? We all know that children produce the high grade cobalt, so it’s the price we have to pay? What kind of a ridiculous comment is that. Shouldn’t you be looking for another planet to hang out? Or send your own children to Congo, let them dig for Cobalt.
So because Amnesty did not told us sooner, it is okay that child labor exists? After all, they are the guilty ones, aren’t they, telling us only know.
The fact that some families only survive because of child labor should not be answered with a shrug. It is a bloody shame that people have to resort to child labor to feed the family.
And somebody points one of many fingers at apple and suddenly we all get defensive and we shouldn’t be pointing fingers because other companies do this too. That makes it okay? The biggest injustice you have to speak up about in all this is the unfairness of pointing a finger at apple because Samsung and Microsoft use the same materials? Really?
Why is it so hard to admit that this practice is cruel, unnecessary and a direct repercussion of our greed, our locust mentality and our drive to justify cognitive dissonance. Yes I have an iPad but that makes the argument to stop child labor and to pay normal wages to the people that have the choice between dying on the side of the road or dying inside a mine, less valid. It is no shame to speak up against it, even if you write it on a bloodphone. I pay a premium price for my technology and I for one, want to pay even more if that get’s the people who do the shitty jobs a chance for a normal life. Remember that we are the 20%, we should not strive to impoverish ourselves but we sure shouldn’t be cocky and smug about child labor, forced labor, hazardous working situations and be indifferent because that is the way the world turns.
I find it hard to digest that our society accept child labor as a normal byproduct of our toys but sues a mother to jail for letting her child play on her front yard while she is inside.
Or maybe you are all pulling my leg and I didn’t get your sarcasm and irony.
end rant, back to lurking, keep on moving people, nothing to see here, just an idiot with an opinion, move along.
Apple has so much cash they should try harder to avoid countries that promote this child or war torn labor. We have plenty of cobalt here in the United States. They should just snatch up a company that is trying to build out mines here responsibly like Formation Metals in Idaho.