China Labor Watch Urges Apple to Look Into Pegatron Worker Overtime

China Labor Watch is urging Apple to investigate working overtime at its supplier, Pegatron. The independent not-for-profit organization had conducted its own analysis of labour conditions at Pegatron and wasn’t happy with what they found. Their latest call to action, however, comes after the death of a 26-year-old Pegatron employee, who had been working “day-after-day of long overtime shifts” on the iPhone 6 production.

The worker, named Tian Fulei, died in early February. While the medical papers state the cause as “sudden death” and Pegatron offered a CNY 80,000 (roughly $12,000) settlement, the main issue — as highlighted by CLW’s recent report, is the exhaustingly long hours of overtime Pegatron employees work.

What CLW found slightly contradicts Apple’s statement of safety compliance, indicating that the iPhone maker has found itself in the uncomfortable position of losing control over its huge supply chain and is unable to monitor it effectively.

Apple says it is constantly monitoring suppliers’ compliance with its own labour standards. The reality looks slightly different: the pay stubs submitted to CLW show Pegatron’s workers average 60+ working hours per week and 52% of workers have completed more than 90 hours of overtime per month, some even working as much as 132 hours of overtime.

The non-for-profit organisation is once again urging Apple to investigate the matter.