A report from Bloomberg today confirmed Foxconn is interested in hiring new safety and security experts to help improve working conditions in facilities responsible for supplying Apple products. Foxconn’s retail division chairman Louis Woo confirmed the job listings, which include a “lifestyle manager” responsible for maintaining worker dorms and healthcare, a safety and security expert, and two fire chiefs:
We already know that Apple allowed the Fair Labor Association access to its suppliers abroad with initial results of Foxconn facility audits expected within weeks. Apple also continues to work with the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and other NGOs, as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York (according to USAToday) to perform independent audits of factories in China. Following controversy fueled largely by The New York Times’ reports, Foxconn announced last month it would raise wages of entry-level workers in Shenzhen by 16 percent to 25 percent. However, Fair Labor Association Chief Executive Officer Auret van Heerden recently said the audits are “finding tons of issues.”
Yesterday, a report from NPR profiled 25 workers that were injured in an explosion at a Pegatron-owned iPad factory in Shanghai, China in December.
