The Fair Labor Association released a report on Tuesday saying Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn has corrected some 284 infractions, taking numerous steps to create a safer workplace, since the factories were last audited in February.
The FLA returned to Foxconn’s three factories to audit the Taiwanese company, finding that some 295 previously noted infractions had been corrected as of June, with another 254 scheduled for completion by July 2013. The company in March promised to fix the violations found by FLA inspectors.
The “Foxconn Verification Status Report” for August 2012 says Foxconn was able to complete the 284 remedial actions by the May 31 due date. The company is reported to be ahead of schedule on the remaining changes.
“A lot of companies are looking at Foxconn’s progress with considerable interest and concern because they know how ambitious a target Foxconn has set,” FLA president and CEO Auret van Heerden told Bloomberg. “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that a Samsung facility will come up” in a later inspection.
The independent verification process reviewed documentation including policies, procedures, and time and payroll expenses. Also, a visual inspection of the facilities, with worker and management interviews, was conducted. FLA reports that during the group’s audit of Foxconn’s plants in Guanlan, Longhua and Chengdu, management allowed full, unrestricted access to facilities and documents.
The FLA report says that the company still need to work on compliance with Chinese labor laws in regard to working hours. Foxconn employees are still subject to excessive overtime despite the company’s commitment to meet the Chinese legal limit of 40 hours per week plus an average nine overtime hours.
Foxconn has about 178,000 workers dedicated to making Apple devices, while another 1.3 million work on products for Sony, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco.
