Apple has issued a press release announcing that the Fair Labor Association (FLA) will be “conducting special voluntary audits” of “Apple’s final assembly suppliers” in China. The audits will take place at the company’s partner factories, which include Foxconn.
From the press release:
As part of its independent assessment, the FLA will interview thousands of employees about working and living conditions including health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management. The FLA’s team will inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, and will conduct an extensive review of documents related to procedures at all stages of employment.
If you’re scratching your head, wondering why this sounds so familiar, back in January we published an article about Apple’s partnership with FLA. This announcement just makes the partnership official, and is undoubtably being released today in an attempt to quell the public anger about Foxconn’s alleged human rights violations.
Whether or not you’re a fan of Apple, you can probably agree that this move is a good one. Apple’s leading the change, and all of its competitors, who also use Foxconn, are remaining curiously silent about the situation. The silence certainly speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
The findings from the inspection will be published on the FLA’s website in March.
