The Fair Labor Association (FLA) conducted an audit and found that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has achieved nearly all the objectives in its policy to get better conditions at the three factories but facing problems to limit workers’ overtime to the Chinese authorized cap of 49 hours per week.
In Shenzhen and Chengdu, three factories are located where employees work less than 60 hours per week, following the FLA’s own code. Only at one facility, working hours exceed 60 hours for a seven-week period.
On Thursday, a labor group said that Foxconn Technology Group is not following the overtime hours of its employees in China but the working conditions are satisfactory at three of its factories where Apple products are made. However, Foxconn set out an aim to attain 49 hours per week limit in 2012.
Following a huge criticism from labor group and media, the FLA was invited by Apple to audit three of Foxconn’s factories in China and a lot of changes are recommended in audit. About 180,000 employees work at three facilities. List of changes comprises updating gear, safety strategies, introducing more recurrent breaks for employees and giving means to workers through which they can complain to management about bad situations.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) created a fierce competition to lead the global smartphone market but the Korean electronics giant has an edge over Apple Inc. (AAPL). Samsung had sign contracts with the No. 1 mobile operators in China and Japan which are Asia’s two leading economies but Apple has no such advantage. Even Apple couldn’t persuade Japan’s NTT Docomo or China Mobile Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:CHL). About 821 million customers are present in these two carriers combined.
However, Docomo started offering the iPhone in September in Japan. In the meantime, CEO of Apple (AAPL) Tim Cook expanded its business in China as well. While iPhones are not compatible with 3G standard of China Mobile but they do on the LTE technology which carrier will launch in next year to use for its 4G service.