17-11-2009 Global Post: Silicon sweatshop series - new allegations of labour violations at Apple's supplier

Excerpt from the Global Post article:

Despite strict "codes of conduct," labor rights violations are the norm at factories making the world's favorite high-tech gadgets

Hourly wages below a dollar. Firings with no notice. Indifferent bosses. Labor brokers that leech away months of a worker's hard-earned wages. A corporate shell game that leaves no one responsible.

Such conditions are widespread at the contract factories cranking out some of the most popular gadgets on the holiday season’s gift lists, according to labor rights activists and workers interviewed by GlobalPost.

...

In May, GlobalPost covered reports of labor abuses at just one Taiwan electronics firm believed to supply Apple, Nokia and Motorola at its factories in Taiwan and China. Since then, we’ve interviewed 12 current and former workers at this same company. We heard the following new allegations:

• For Taiwanese workers, routine violations of Apple and industry codes of conduct on work hours, days off, overtime, worker complaint mechanisms and the right to organize;
• For Chinese workers, violations of a major electronic industry group's code of conduct on all of the above, and allegations of under-aged labor;
• For Filipina migrant workers, "placement fees" far in excess of Taiwan regulations, with fees and deductions amounting to nearly a full year's salary — a "core" violation of Apple's code.