FLA Auditor Finds Numerous Issues in Apple Supplier Foxconn’s Chinese Factory

The Fair Labor Association has uncovered a number of issues that need to be addressed at Foxconn's Shenzhen factory, according to report.

FLA Chief Executive Auret van Heerden told Bloomberg that the group had found tons of issues, and that I believe we're going to see some very significant announcements in the near future.

Following public protests and petitions of worldwide consumers, Apple had engaged the FLA to look into working conditions at the Foxconn factory.

At the same time, the FLA's preliminary assessment stated that the company's plants had conditions that were better than most. The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm, van Heerden had said earlier.

I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory. So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It's more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps, he added.

Meanwhile, Foxconn announced that it had once again raised salaries of its assembly-line workers in its main factory in Shenzhen, China.

Apple joined the FLA last month after acknowledging that aluminum dust was responsible for explosions at two of its Chinese suppliers last year that resulted in four deaths and injuries to another 77 workers.

One of the two explosions occurred at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, China, in last May. The other took place at a Shanghai factory run by RiTeng Computer Accessory, a subsidiary of Pegatron, another Apple supplier, two months ago.

We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we've asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.