Some suppliers hired underage workers: Apple

NEW YORK: Apple Inc has said three of its suppliers had hired 11 underage workers last year, a violation the US based firm uncovered at the time of onsite audit of its 102 facilities.

"Apple discovered three facilities that had previously hired 15-year-old workers in countries where the minimum age for employment is 16. Across the three facilities, auditors found records of 11 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age," the company said in a report on its website.

The iPhone, iPod and Macintosh Computer maker, however, said that the workers were "no longer underage or no longer (was) in active employment at the time of our audit."

As of December 2009, Apple has audited 190 facilities located in China, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the US.

The US firm, however, did not name its suppliers and manufacturers in the report titled 'Supplier Responsibility'.

The report said that during the course of audit of its suppliers, the auditors found 17 core violations of policies, which is mostly related to the labour laws and underage recruitments.

While three suppliers "falsified records" to conceal underage hiring, the audit found that the employees in as many as 60 facilities were overworked.

Besides, 57 facilities did not provide the right benefit to the worker and that 24 suppliers were paying less than minimum wage to its employees.