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Apple starts issuing monthly reports on excessive work hours

Posted: , by Victor H.

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Apple starts issuing monthly reports on excessive work hours
While Apple shares are growing over $600 apiece and the company’s new iPad is enjoying thriving sales, the black spot of underpaid excessive overseas labor stains the company. It’s not only Apple - all tech companies rely a lot on underpaid manual labor, with workers in China and other Asian countries often forced to work long shifts for days on end.

And while the recent factual fiasco over Mike Daisey’s “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” blurred how real the issue is, it - along with the following investigative reporting by various publications like the NY Times - has helped Apple improve its code of conduct, apply it more vigorously and let the public see the results.

The latest effort on Apple’s side is the introduction of monthly reporting for excessive work hours. This will allow the company to efficiently track the work process at its suppliers’ factories and force in some needed improvement. The new section has just been added to Apple’s Supplier Responsibility section.

The best thing is that we’re seeing this progress even in Apple’s busiest months around the third-gen iPad launch. In February 2012, there was a 5% sequential decrease in over 60-hour workweeks and the average workweek stood at 48 hours. Here’s Apple’s official statement detailing how Apple deals with the issue:

In our effort to end the industry practice of excessive overtime, we're working closely with our suppliers to manage employee working hours. Weekly data collected in January 2012 on more than 500,000 workers employed by our suppliers showed 84 percent compliance with the 60-hour work week specified in our code. In February 2012, compliance with the 60-hour work week among 500,000 workers at those suppliers increased to 89 percent, with workers averaging 48 hours per week. That's a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better. We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis.

It seems that Apple is on the right track and we’re glad to see the company takes the excess work hour issue seriously. We’ll keep you in the know about the progress as it gets posted on Apple’s website monthly.


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1. rf1975 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 05:21 5

Apple is going to set some good example under Tim leadership. Let us hope all other companies also will take labor issues seriously.

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2. phitch posted on 20 Mar 2012, 05:32 2

LMAO 60 Hour Work Week... Apple you are so nice to give Foxconn such lenient terms. Do they get a choice between 12 hour work days, 10 hour work days or the amazing 8.6 hour work day?

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3. deago78 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 07:22 1

I'm guessing you're condemning them. Is that to say that 8.6 hour work days are too much? 60 hour work weeks are common in many countries around the world. America just happens to be below average in what a common person works weekly.

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7. remixfa posted on 20 Mar 2012, 13:56

unless you go to a socialist country where they answer their unemployment problems by saying that a full work week is now 25 hours though they still get paid like they worked 40, forcing businesses to hire more people, and of course making crap more expensive.

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9. cellphonator posted on 20 Mar 2012, 17:15

As a matter of fact socialism (in its light and heavier forms) failed all over the world and it's dragging everybody else, see the situation in Europe.

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4. kshell1 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 07:31 3

My dad works 70 a week, although he gets paid a fair amount unlike foxconn workers. although he has the choice to work that much

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5. jaytai0106 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 08:14

60 hrs aren't that much, but the fact they probably don't get over time is horrible. I am pretty sure some teenager in the U.S. can work at McDonald's for 40 hrs a week and still make more money than the people in Foxconn in 60 hrs. How sad...

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6. medicci37 posted on 20 Mar 2012, 13:16 1

The US needs to make it illegal to import products that don't meet our Labor standards. & what about the 11% that were not in compliance? If big business had their way, feudalism & slavery would still be rampant. If the people who run these companies demanded as much productivity from their execs as they do their low level employees, they would be more able to compete with the rest of the world.

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10. nancyfuqindrew posted on 21 Mar 2012, 09:17

Wonderful post. Thank you.

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8. remixfa posted on 20 Mar 2012, 13:57

if they are truely doing REAL monitoring, then its a good small step forward. I'll give them that much.

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