The question will be is it enough?. After wide-spread consumer complaints about the manufacturing worker conditions at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) supplier Foxconn, and Apple’s alliance with watchdog Fair Labor Association, Foxconn has raised worker compensation. There have been rumors of Foxconn worker suicides and sub-human worker conditions.
Not only do the Foxconn employees need to get a fair wage to improve public perception. Apple has to be viewed as a company which will only do business with ethical suppliers who will not exploit their workers. Otherwise, Apple’s brand, and perhaps image and sales could be damaged.
According to Reuters,
Foxconn Technology Group, the top maker of Apple Inc’s iPhones and iPads whose factories are under scrutiny over labour practices, has raised wages of its Chinese workers by 16-25 percent from this month, the third rise since 2010.
The statement does not indicate if there will be a significant change in how workers will be treated beyond these raises. so the scrutiny, and criticisms, may not end here.
Douglas A. McIntrye
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