Published on the 16/02/2012 | Written by Newsdesk

Apple has announced that the Fair Labor Association will conduct audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, where, in 2010, 13 suicides or attempted suicides made headlines in the Western media and generated intense focus on working conditions in the company’s Chinese manufacturing houses.

Despite record profits in 2012, critics have accused Apple of mass employee exploitation, with some workers complaining of 10 hour shifts with a single break, and some workers earning as little as 50c an hour.

A team of labour rights experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerden began the first inspections Monday morning.

As part of the assessment, the FLA will interview thousands of employees about working and living conditions including health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management. The FLA’s team will inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, and will conduct an extensive review of documents related to procedures at all stages of employment.

“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,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO in a statement.

“The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

The FLA’s findings and recommendations from the first assessments will be posted in early March on its website, www.fairlabor.org. Similar inspections will be conducted at Quanta and Pegatron facilities later this year, and when completed, will cover facilities where more than 90 per cent of Apple products are assembled.