‘Suicides at Apple supply plants a lesson for companies’
March 29th, 2011 - 12:38 pm ICT by IANSToronto, March 29 (IANS) Citing worker suicides and injuries at Apple’s supplier plants over the last two years, an international study has urged corporates to learn from it and change their wrong approach to managing their supply chains.
Apple is under pressure after reports of suicides and health hazards to workers at its supply plants in China. Suicides by workers at Foxconn Technologies, one of Apple’s biggest suppliers in China, have rattled the biggest technology brand in the world.
Last month, the New York Times reported that over 130 workers at an Apple supply factory in Suzhou suffered severe health problems after poisoning by a chemical called n-hexane.
In its study, the Network for Business Sustainability, an independent research group based at the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario near here, says that ensuring safe working conditions should be the top responsibility of companies that buy from suppliers in other countries.
Though these companies talk about their commitment to safe working conditions in their supply chains, they are going about it the wrong way.
“Many companies today talk about developing ’sustainable’ supply chains, but they’re actually talking about managing risk and preventing public relations crises,” says study co-author Stephen Brammer of the Warwick Business School (Britain).
“Those companies end up implementing costly and ineffective punitive actions against suppliers after labour issues or supply disruptions have already occurred.
“In the end, nobody wins.”
Leading companies are just treating their supply chains “as opportunities for competitive advantage”, says the study.
“If supplier employees are experiencing high levels of injury, your company should send staff to do on-site training. If some suppliers are less productive than others, don’t just drop them. Hold supplier conferences where the laggards can learn from the leaders and everyone can share best practices.” says Brammer.
(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)
- Chinese 'iPhone' factory workers hospitalised following 'harmful chemical exposure' - Oct 26, 2010
- Apple Blamed For Poor Environmental Work Safety - Jan 21, 2011
- No compensation if staff commits suicide: Foxconn - Jun 09, 2010
- 10th Suicide in a Chinese Factory - May 27, 2010
- Phil Ivey says that investors need to be worried who invested in Full Tilt Poker - Jun 03, 2011
- Foxconn denies accusations of illegal working conditions in China - Oct 12, 2010
- Foxconn workers rally to boost morale - Aug 19, 2010
- Foxconn to shift some plants in China - Jul 08, 2010
- Apple Disparaged By China's Environmental Coalition, IPE, For Poor Standards Of Work Safety In Its Suppliers In China - Jan 21, 2011
- Another Foxconn worker falls to death in China - Nov 05, 2010
- Woman commits suicide at China Foxconn plant - Nov 25, 2011
- Apple launches probe into unsafe factory conditions in China - Jan 27, 2012
- One year, 10 suicides in Chinese electronics factory - May 27, 2010
- Foxconn's Shenzen factory to increase wages by 20% in light of employee suicides - May 29, 2010
- Foxconn plans to create 400,000 new jobs - Aug 19, 2010
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