A routine audit of Apple’s contractors across the world have found three facilities that employed underage workers, a practice that the electronics company strictly does not condone. It also found over a dozen other violations of its policies.
Apple posted the report to its Web site. In total, it discovered that 11 employees were hired at its overseas partners were under their country’s respective legal working age. However, at the time the audit was conducted, all 11 had either become old enough to legally work, or were no longer hired.
Apple said some of the workers were as young as 15.
The company reported 17 “core violations” of its policies, the most severe, across the 102 facilities and over 100,000 workers involved in the audit. In addition to underage employment, Apple discovered cases of involuntary labor, falsification of documents, threats to worker safety, intimidation, and even abuse. Any facility that has a core violation is put under higher scrutiny and subject to a re-audit at a later date.
In a move to create more global transparency, Apple has been conducting these types of audits and making their findings public since 2006. This is to “make sure they comply with Apple’s strict standards,” said Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling.
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