[ad_1]
Deal
Apple has put its Taiwanese supplier Pegatron on probation after finding that the company violated Apple’s supplier code of conduct, the iPhone maker said Monday.
FILE PHOTO: The Apple company logo is seen outside an Apple store in Bordeaux, France, on March 22, 2019. REUTERS / Regis Duvignau
SHANGHAI / TAIPEI: Apple said Monday that it put its Taiwanese supplier Pegatron on probation after discovering that the company violated Apple’s supplier code of conduct by asking student employees to work night shifts or overtime.
Pegatron had misclassified student workers and falsified paperwork to disguise violations, and in some cases also violated the code by allowing students to do work unrelated to their majors, the US tech giant said.
Pegatron is one of the few Taiwanese manufacturers on the island, along with Foxconn, that dominate Apple’s iPhone assembly chain.
“Several weeks ago, we discovered that Pegatron, one of Apple’s suppliers in China, violated the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct in its administration of a work-study program for students,” it said in a statement.
“Apple has placed Pegatron on probation and Pegatron will not receive any new business from Apple until all necessary corrective actions are completed.” Apple did not state the terms of the probation.
Apple’s investigations had found no evidence of forced or child labor, he said, adding that Pegatron had now fired the executive with direct supervision of the program.
“The Pegatron individuals responsible for the violations did everything possible to evade our oversight mechanisms,” Apple said.
Pegatron shares closed 2.1% lower on Monday, below a 1.2% gain in the broader Taipei market.
Pegatron said in a separate statement that student workers had been found on its Shanghai and Kunshan campuses working without complying with local rules and regulations.
They had now been removed from the production lines and given “adequate compensation,” he said.
He did not address in his statement how Apple’s parole could affect the company. Pegatron reported a profit of TUS $ 19.3 billion (US $ 676 million) in 2019, 74% more than the previous year.
Apple last month released its next-generation iPhone 12, with faster 5G connectivity.
Apple and its suppliers have been accused of poor labor practices in the past, but the American company has been trying to control these problems by publishing annual reviews of the iPhone supply chain.
In 2017, Apple and Foxconn said a small number of students were found to be working overtime at one of the latter’s Chinese factories, violating local labor laws.
In July, the third-largest Taiwanese phone assembler, Wistron, sold two smaller factories in China to Dongguan-based Luxshare, a fast-growing firm emblematic of China’s growing local suppliers that are gradually increasing rivalry with the giants. Taiwanese.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz in Shanghai and Yimou Lee in Taiwan; written by Brenda Goh; edited by Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Kenneth Maxwell)
