Apple CEO responds to claims of poor working conditions at iPhone factory

Recently, the New York Times ran an article that detailed the harsh conditions workers are facing at a factory that supplies parts for Apple products, including the iPhone.

The report highlighted a number of disturbing instances of workers being consistently overworked. Workers are faced with constant and excessive overtime, and in some cases this lasted for a week straight. Workers were forced to stand so long that their legs would swell, and all of the factory’s employees lived in overly crowded dorms–and that’s not even the half of it.

Since the New York Times ran its report, Apple has been coming under fire from some, with calls for the company to promptly address the poor working conditions. Apple has yet to make an official public statement, but 9to5mac picked up an email that Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out to Apple employees, in which Cook says that the company will “dig deeper”.

Here are a few key points that Cook touched on in the email:

“Every year we inspect more factories, raising the bar for our partners and going deeper into the supply chain. As we reported earlier this month, we’ve made a great deal of progress and improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers. We know of no one in our industry doing as much as we are, in as many places, touching as many people.”

“We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility.”

You can check out Tim Cook’s email in full at this link.