Apple Put iPhone Taiwanese Supplier Pegatron On Probation For Labor Violations

Apple has frozen its partnership with Pegatron after the Cupertino tech giant discovered its long-time supplier’s violations of labor laws in a student workers’ program.

According to Blomberg, a few weeks ago, Apple found out that Pegatron falsified paperwork to hide the violations of the iPhone maker’s code of conduct for its suppliers.

Apple Taiwanese partner misclassified some student workers, allowing them to work overtime and in night shifts.

According to Apple’s statement for Bloomberg, its supplier misclassified the participants of the student worker program and fake paperwork to cover up the violations. In many cases, the students do tasks unrelated to their majors. The employees involved in this wrongdoing had gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid Apple’s supervision.

According to Pegatron, the violations happened at its campuses in Kunshan and Shanghai in Eastern China. The Taiwanese company also revealed that the students worked overtime, night shifts, and at positions that have little relevance to their majors. These acts have violated local rules and regulations. The manager overseeing the program has been fired.

After the violation was discovered, the student workers have been taken off the production lines. The company has also worked with third-party experts to send them to their schools or homes with proper compensations and support, according to Pegatron.

Pegatron has been put on probation for the violations and as a result, the company might lose iPhone 12 contract to Luxshare. However, the current production of iPhones is unaffected by this.

Pegatron was under fire for abusing workers before. China Labor Watch’s 2013 report revealed evidence of student workers working over-time with insufficient payment or no payment at all at the assembly line in Shanghai.

Other Apple’s partners including Catcher Technology and Foxconn were also accused of breaking local regulations in the past. As a result, Apple strengthened its standards for its manufacturing partners.

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