01-03-2010 Telegraph blog: Apple's factories are getting worse, not better

Excerpt from the Telegraph blog post:

In its [2010 Supplier Responsibility] report, Apple also gave itself a pat on the back for its work. “During most of our audits, suppliers stated that Apple was the only company that had ever audited their facility for supplier responsibility.”

I agree that Apple deserves credit for being transparent, and I also agree that its competitors, such as HTC, the makers of Google’s Nexus One phone, could do a great deal more to comfort buyers that their products have been manufactured ethically.

However, if you read through the series of annual reports that Apple has published (downloadable here), it becomes clear that the factories that the company is using are becoming worse, not better.

This year’s report highlighted 17 “core violations”, five more than last year and a proportionally greater number (accounting for the increase in the number of factories audited).

Some problems have got much worse. The percentage of factories that have the correct environmental permits and reporting systems has fallen from 73pc last year to just 57pc this year. The percentage of factories that are working to prevent occupational injury has fallen from 79pc to 61pc.

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It seems then, that while Apple is to be applauded for having reported on its factories, it is not doing enough to actually change what is going on at those factories. If the company really was dedicated to improving the lives of its workers, it would stop using factories that were found to be in breach.