Apple finds serious labour and environmental violations as audits expand

Apple has announced on Wednesday that it has found serious violations of labour and environmental policies after expanding its audit into staff conditions at its manufacturing activities.

Apple found 44 "core violations" of its code of conduct in its annual 2017 supplier responsibility report, including 38 instances of falsified shift schedule data (nine cases in 2016) and employees forced to pay excessive fees to land a job, a practice that Apple banned in 2015.

The company, which audited 756 suppliers across more than 30 countries, also found two cases last year of Chinese students working over 11 hours a day on the iPhoneX assembly lines, saying it would now move to introduce new regulations.

Nevertheless, the company was at pains to stress that from among the 756 suppliers canvassed, most factories and employees either complied with the code or exceeded expectations. Indeed, the proportion of "low performers" or those who scored 59 points or less out of 100 had fallen from 14% in 2014 to 1% in 2017.

All sites at which the iPhone was manufactured had also been certified as 100% zero waste, with the adoption of renewable energies having allowed the company to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases in 2017 by over 320,000 metric tons.

Apple said the increase in the number of core violations last year was the result of an increased number of suppliers (197 in 2017) and employees (1.3m) that it had to begun to track.

Nonetheless, Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer said in a statement that the company is committed to improving every year and reducing the frequency of such violations.