Posted on Thursday, May 10 2012 @ 16:24 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Inquirer
reports Foxconn and Apple announced a deal in which the companies will share the costs associated with improving working conditions at Foxconn's iPhone and iPad manufacturing facilities in China.
Foxconn CEO Terry Gou insisted that the Chinese manufacturing giant is working to improve conditions for its workers. "We've discovered that [improving factory conditions] is not a cost. It is a competitive strength," Gou told Reuters in Shanghai. "I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs." However the Foxconn chief did not disclose additional financial details of the arrangement with Apple.
The commitment comes after Foxconn promised to improve conditions at its plants, including cutting back workers' hours after a recent Fair Labour Association (FLA) inspection. As we reported earlier, this inspection prompted to company, which assembles devices for a number of firms in addition to Apple, to say that it will reduce working hours to "legal limits" without reducing pay.
