Apple has issued a press release stating that one of the company’s longtime manufacturing partners – Foxconn – has opened its doors to investigation from the Fair Labor Association.
On Monday, Apple said the FLA will conduct voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple’s request.
In January, Apple became the first tech company to join the global organization.
Individuals charged with conducting the on-site inspections are described as “a team of labor rights experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerden.” The group began the first round of inspections yesterday in Shenzhen.
“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”
The latest effort by Apple to involve the FLA in the Foxconn investigations comes in response to weeks of complaints by human rights advocates who say Apple should do more to curb the abysmal working conditions some say exist among Apple’s supply-chain partners.
