Amidst reports of harsh working conditions, Apple has asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct audits of its final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn.
In a Monday statement, Apple said labor rights experts - led by FLA president Auret van Heerden - started inspections this morning at a Foxconn facility in Shenzhen. The group will also assess Foxconn's Chengdu factory.
"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 Apple CEO Tim Cook. "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 audit comes after a series of articles in the New York Times questioned whether Apple products are manufactured under safe and humane conditions. Concerns about Foxconn, however, have been going on much longer, with reports about worker suicides making headlines since at least 2010.
Apple said the FLA audits will include interviews with "thousands" of employees and cover topics like working and living conditions, including health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management. The teams will also inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, and will review documents related to procedures at all stages of employment.
FLA will post its findings on its website in early March. Apple joined the FLA as a participating company last month.
Apple said inspections at Quanta and Pegatron plants will occur later this spring. "When completed, the FLA's assessment will cover facilities where more than 90 percent of Apple products are assembled," Cupertino said.
Apple said it has audited suppliers like Foxconn itself since 2006, with details of those probes available via apple.com/supplierresponsibility.
In the wake of reports about poor working conditions, concerned Apple users launched petitions on the websites SumofUs.org and Change.org, calling for Apple to improve worker protections, increase transparency around the monitoring of its suppliers and make an "ethical" iPhone 5. Protestors recently converged on various Apple Stores, including the new one in Grand Central Terminal, to deliver the petitions, which garnered about 250,000 signatures.
Earlier this month, meanwhile, Taiwan-based Foxconn was hacked by a new group of so-called hacktivists and emails from its CEO were exposed.
For more, see A Foxconn Breakdown: Its Strengths, Strangeness, and Scrutiny as well as Foxconn Factories: How Bad Is It?