Apple has publicly identified nearly all its suppliers and invited an outside workplace conditions group to inspect them, the Financial Times reports. Apple said it would give auditors from the non-profit Fair Labor Association access to facilities in its supply chain and allow them to publish their findings. It also listed the names of suppliers that receive 97 percent of Apple's spending. The information was disclosed in Apple's annual report on supplier responsibility, which showed that the company increased the number of its own inspections by 80 percent from the previous year and that it brought in environmental specialists. The report said that Apple suppliers continue to have a wide range of shortcomings, including pushing employees beyond the company's limit of 60-hour work weeks. Only 38 percent of the 229 suppliers audited had working hours in compliance with Apple standards, an improvement from 32 percent the previous year. At 93 facilities, more than half the employees had worked more than 60 hours in at least one week of 12 sampled. Proper overtime wasn't paid at 108 places. In a rarer but more extreme problem, some suppliers relied on recruiters who charged employees so much for finding them work that the employees were in debt and effectively participating in "involuntary labour". Apple insists that employees should be charged no more than one month's wages for placement and it forced its suppliers to reimburse employees USD 3.3 million last year. Underage labour was reduced but still had occurred at five facilities, in no case intentionally, the company said. The previous report found instances at 10 facilities. In a few cases, Apple broke off relations with unnamed suppliers because of their failure to correct practices exposed by the audits.
