Apple's Supply Chain Woes

ETHICS & GOVERNANCE

"Apple's Supply Chain Woes"

Student ID 11039607

Marketing Institute of Singapore

SM 0378

BABM (15th Intake)

Word counts

Task 1 : 464

Task 2 : 454

Task 3 : 554

Task 4 : 645

Total : 2117 words

Contents

Task 1 .......................................................................................... 3

Task 2 ........................................................................................... 5

Task 3 ........................................................................................... 7

Task 4 ........................................................................................... 9

1.1

In June 2010, (BBC News) Foxconn had announced to give a 30% pay rise to its assembly line workers. This is great as it is usually a 10% to 15% rise is considered to be the mark. This will motivate the staff to work better and no suicidal cases and staff will be satisfied morally and improve living standards.

Apple's choice of allowing non-profit labor Association to monitor the suppliers and to publish the findings with details makes them to be praised. It shows that they are concerned over the supplier's behavior and want to show that they have given the contract to the right supplier.

To further prevent suicidal cases, Foxconn have hired 100 counsellors and invited monks to counsel workers to provide emotional support and also trained the medical staff in providing a helping hand to disturbed workers. They also had a reward system for those who spot a peer with emotional problems. This shows how Foxconn care for their staff.

1.2

There is a range of culpability (Sher, 2006:28) from "maximal" (vicious) to "minimal" (negligible). Out of many culpable issues in this case child labour is on the first rank. It was mentioned in (Telegraph, 2010) that in 2009, at least 11, 15 year old children were found working in three factories which are Apple's supplier. This is a very serious matter as Apple is a leader in preventing child labour among their supplier. This culpable issue cause harm to the children as their education is affected and they are demoralized.

The second rank will be for Apple pushing suppliers to produce huge volumes of products at a very low cost which was mentioned in (Forbes, 2012). And also mentioned, that every year Apple's suppliers are required to reduce their price by 10%.

To work in a company, the environment should be safe. That should me checked and maintained well, because it is a matter of life. Wintek forced workers to use n-hexane to clean iphone screens which can cause nerve damage and paralysis. And Foxconn has no proper ventilation, where aluminium particles were on the workers body. These are causes of ill treatment to workers. On third rank.

Over worked workers can fall sick and sometimes loose their life. This has been mentioned by one worker (New York Times, 25 Jan, 2012). Workers work seven days a week and standing long hours and having their legs swell. This happened in Apple's supplier's factory, and ranked it fourth.

After hard days of work one has to have a proper place to rest at least. Whereas, this did not happen in Foxconn. It was reported in (BBC News, 1st Feb, 2012), 20 workers were stuffed in a three bedroom apartment and a riot set off by a dispute over paychecks. Workers have no privacy no personal breathing space.

2.0

The suicide of a 25 year old, Mr San at Foxconn has brought a great insult to both Apple and Foxconn (BBC, 28 July, 2009). The blame on Apple's part it could be of bad managing on their outsourcing and on Foxconn it is a bad human resource management. It was known earlier that there were ill treatment happening to workers at Foxconn by the auditing group and nothing was done, this was mentioned by the ex-employees.

Apple's audit also shows that their suppliers are using under-aged workers and their workers were underpaid (BBC, 1 Feb 2012). This shows how the suppliers violated Apple's code of conduct. After the audit it was known to Apple and no action was taken. Apple to be blamed.

When entering the company seeing a banner on the walls written as a threat like work hard today or find a job with hardship (New York Times, 25 Jan, 2012) really makes anyone frightened. It shows how the workers are treated in Foxconn. Moreover according Mr Lai's paycheck it shows that he had worked 12 hours per day and six day a week. Which is also against Apple's code of conduct, to work for 60 hours per week. Foxconn is to be blamed on this inhumane behavior.

2.1

Mr Cook bears a personal moral responsibility whenever a foxconn worker is killed or disabled while making an Apple's product. Mr Cook in a way agrees to a net harm was done and he is responsible for it. He further says that accidents happen is a troubling issue and working condition is to be looked into (BBC News, 1 Feb 2012).

Apple requested Wintek to stop using n-hexane after the injuries and treated all affected workers successfully and monitored them. This shows that Wintek is responsible for the injuries but Apple has done justification by treating the injured workers and monitored them.

Dionne Harrison of Impact, said that Apple is a leader in prevention of child labour and they have hired this firm in helping prevent child labour among suppliers. But the suppliers had hired child labour. He further said "They are doing as much as they possibly can" to prevent child labour. Here it shows Apple is not responsible and yet harm was done.

A former employee in Foxconn,