On March 30, 2016 Apple released its 10th Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. Two days later, on April 1, the latest UK Higher Education Framework Agreement for Apple products went live. It includes the Electronics Watch Contract Conditions, which means that UK universities affiliated to Electronics Watch can now legally require their contractors to respect domestic and international labour standards in Apple's supplier factories.
On March 30, 2016 Apple released its 10th Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. Two days later, on April 1, the latest UK Higher Education Framework Agreement for Apple products went live. It includes the Electronics Watch Contract Conditions, which means that UK universities affiliated to Electronics Watch can now legally require their contractors to respect domestic and international labour standards in Apple's supplier factories.
The university contractors will disclose a full list of factories that make the components and assemble the goods in the contract. They will develop compliance plans that disclose actual breaches of labour standards in those factories, and explain how they investigate and remedy the breaches and how they foster socially responsible trading conditions to prevent workers' rights violations in the first place. Finally, as major purchasers of computers and other products, they will use their leverage with Apple and other suppliers to correct rights violations and compensate workers for any harm they suffered as a result of the violations.
"There's a right way to make products," Apple states in its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. "It starts with the rights of the people who make them." Electronics Watch and its affiliate members are ready to work with Apple to protect workers' rights.
