Pegatron was suspended by Apple for new business collaboration due to illegal use of student workers

Due to the new corona outbreak, Apple’s supply of new products this year was heavily impacted. Unexpectedly, recently, Pegatron, a major partner of the foundry, was exposed to the illegal use of student labor. According to a Bloomberg report, Apple discovered a few weeks ago that Pegatron deliberately changed internal student job categories to cover violations of some factories that allow students to work nights or overtime. For this reason, Apple has now placed Pegatron in an “observation period” and stated that it “will not enter into any new commercial partnerships with Pegatron” until Pegatron has “completed all necessary corrective measures”.

According to Apple’s statement, the relevant senior management has been fired from Pegatron. Pegatron also said that after discovering the incident, the student workers were moved off the production line as soon as possible and appropriate arrangements were made for them, while at the same time providing reasonable remuneration and the necessary support and care. . In fact, Pegatron is no longer the top offender on similar issues: in the past, they have even been charged with “worse” job treatment than another Apple manufacturer, Foxconn. Obviously Foxconn, with frequent reports of worker suicides in the past, can be considered a bad record. Another partner, Quanta, has a dark history of using child labor to illegally go to night shifts.

To combat these phenomena, Apple has launched the Supplier Responsibility Program since 2014, hoping to protect the labor rights, human rights, health and safety of its partners’ workers. At first, only 26% of suppliers received the “excellent performance” rating, but in 2019 this number rose to 82%. However, this time around, Pegatron’s breaches will undoubtedly once again sound the alarm for Apple, which still can’t relax their partners’ oversight mechanism.