China Labour Watch Again Targets Apple and Pegatron

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The same day Apple published its supplier responsibility report, presenting the company’s effort to make sure “each person [working in its supply chain] is treated with dignity and respect,” China Labor Watch has pointed out its failures: Apple is unable to effectively monitor standards in its supply chain, the report claims. This allows companies like Pegatron to keep base wages below local living expenses, reports Reuters.

The report based its findings on 96 pay stubs submitted by an unknown number of employees. The fact is, low pay “motivates” workers to put in more hours. The report, however, doesn’t provide evidence of Apple choosing Pegatron because of the lower wages, and the outlined situation isn’t meant to draw comparisons across the whole supply chain.

“Apple constantly claims that it is monitoring suppliers’ compliance with Apple labor standards,” New York-based CLW said. “Apple consistently suppresses labor costs by shifting production to the cheapest manufacturer.”

Pegatron employs 140,00 people (as of the end of 2014), and it has won Apple orders away from Foxconn. It assembles Apple devices in two of its facilities.

Just a side note: while this company is paying wages below local living expenses, its revenue is growing thanks to iPhone 6 orders, according to its latest earnings report, as shared by Digitimes. Revenues in January were up 3.28% sequentially and 28.98% on the year to $3.75 billion.

Communication products such as the iPhone 6 accounted for half of Pegatron’s total shipments reported for the holiday quarter, up from 39% and 45% in the previous two quarters, respectively.

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