Apple: Only 1% of factory workers building our devices was overworked in January

Apple has recently updated the Supplier Work-Hour Compliance chart on its website. This chart shows the percentage of supplier's factory workers assembling Apple devices, that are working no more than 60 hours a week. Starting with 500,000 employees in January 2012, the chart now covers 1,000,000 employees. The update shows that in January 2013, 99% of workers experienced a work week of 60 hours or less. This comes after readings of 87% seen in September and November 2012, months when Apple iPhone 5 production was rising to meet demand for the launch and for the holidays.

On average, Apple says that 92% of factory workers assembling Apple products are working 60 hours a week or less with the average worker punching a time card for less than 50 hours weekly. Producing the chart was a simple response to the problem of excessive overtime, but it seemed to work, according to Apple. The Cupertino based tech giant has a Supplier Code of Conduct that says that employees must be limited to 60 hour work weeks except in "unusual circumstances" (like when demand for a certain device is high?), and all overtime must be voluntary.

Besides keeping workers toiling for less than 60 hours a week, Apple says it has been stringent with suppliers to prevent underage workers from entering the factories. In its latest report, Apple says, "In 2012, we found no cases of underage labor at any of our final assembly suppliers." In one case, Apple found out that a specific labor agency was providing underage workers to a factory that Apple stopped doing business with due to its underage employees. Apple reported this to the provincial government which suspended the agency's license and fined it.

source: Apple via TUAW