Introduction
Today's business environment is dynamic. The rapid changes in technology specifically have posed challenges to businesses. Apple cannot be excluded from this cluster and most especially because it operates in the Information Technology and Electronic industry which evolves every waking moment. For that matter, Apple formulated a Supplier Code of Conduct in 2005 to act as a guideline of the relationship between Apple and its suppliers. Over time, Apple has made some changes to the code of conduct to cope with the changing times; socially, technologically, economically and politically. This paper lists the various changes that Apple has made and gave an explanation to the suppliers.
Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct majorly addresses these issues; labor, human rights, accountability, environment, health and safety and management systems. The Supplier Code of Conduct was created in 2005 upon which Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Program was implemented. Over the years, Apple has made some changes to the Code of Conduct which include the following;
Initially, Apple’s stance on child labor was just prohibited. The code also allowed for juvenile employment of children aged 15-17 years. However, over the years, they have included penalties in case a supplier violates this code of conduct. This includes the supplier returning the underage employee home, taking care of their schooling and basic needs until they reach the legal age. The suppliers are required to reemploy the children after they are done with their education and have reached legal age. An example is the three cases that were discovered and corrected in 2015.
On the Human rights, initially, Apple only stated that employees should not be discriminated based on color, religion, race, disability, ethnicity, political affiliation among other things. In recent years, they have added a clause that prohibits bonded labor where employees are unfairly charged recruitment fees. Suppliers who violate this conduct are forced to refund the employees, even if they did not participate in the recruiting process directly. An example of bonded labor cases was Rachel Ragas, a Philippine, who was reimbursed all the charges she had incurred as recruitment fees because it was beyond Apple's standard recruitment fee.
The code of conduct initially required suppliers to provide appropriate controls, safe work procedures, and preventative maintenance to reduce risks in the work place. However, in 2013, Apple took an initiative to start an Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) Academy to train local managers on issues of emergency preparedness and safety ("Supplier Responsibility - Apple", 2016). After the training, managers are required to create and implement ESH to improve safety conditions at the supplier facilities. An example of such projects is ‘Increasing Safety at Marian Suzhou’ which was started by the ESH students.
When the Supplier Code of Conduct was formulated, accountability was entirely left to suppliers’ management. The management was supposed to identify representatives for implementing and monitoring the status of the suppliers' management systems. In the recent years, Apple has implemented four stages in the audit process, and they participate in the process with the help of third-party trained on Apple’s auditing protocols. The four stages include; audit prioritization where suppliers are audited depending on the level of risk, Onsite audits, addressing noncompliant issues where non-compliant suppliers are required to formulate a corrective action plan to be implemented in 120 days. The last stage involves verifying improvement to monitor whether the corrective action plan formulated by the suppliers has been implemented. An example is a case of improving factory conditions in Liuyang after the 2010 audit.
The initial Supplier Code of Conduct did not have a provision for employee empowerment. Beginning from 2008, on-the-job training was introduced where over 9.25 million workers have been trained on local laws, health and safety regulations and the Apple Code of Conduct, up to date ("Supplier Responsibility - Apple", 2016). Employees are also given a chance to explore new opportunities after taking the free courses in diverse subjects different from their current jobs through the Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) that was implemented by Apple. An example is the case of Carl Yang, who was initially working as a material operator in the Jabil Suzhou factory, took a course in human resource management through the SEED program and now provides technical support on classroom iPad devices and iMac computers and also guides workers joining the SEED program on what courses to pursue.
Explaining the changes to the Suppliers.
Change is usually not delightful, especially to the recipients of such changes. Different people or organizations may react differently to any change, and therefore, measures need to be taken to ensure the parties involved accept and embrace the change. To ensure that Apple Suppliers accept some the changes that Apple has made on its Code of Conduct here is an explanation on why the changes were necessary and why they should accept it.
The measures taken against suppliers who employ underage workers is to ensure children from the countries within which Apple operate do not spend their childhood in factories since, without any form of identification, it will be hard telling whether the children have attained the minimum age of 15. Secondly, the measure reduces cases of school dropouts in those countries and most importantly serves as a lesson to other non-compliant suppliers.
On bonded labor, making suppliers refund extra recruitment charges will steer the suppliers to be keen on the recruitment process and ensure that employees are not discriminated or exploited financially. To the employees, this offers equal employment opportunities.
The Environment, Safety and Health Program require that Apple sets up classrooms in suppliers’ facilities. Suppliers must understand that the program and classes set-up in their facilities is for their benefit in improving safety and health conditions in the facilities and improve their employee competence. The projects to be created by the learners in ESH program also acts to enhance safety and health, and conservation of the environment.
The onsite audit programs, audit prioritization, formulation of corrective action plan and verification of implementation are intended to ensure that suppliers are audited according to the level of risk regarding compliance with the code of conduct. The onsite audits serve the purpose of getting firsthand information from employees and records in the facility. The Corrective Action Plan is intended to correct the issues arising that need correction and the verification and timeline of 120 days ensures that the corrective action plans are not only formulated but implemented within a set timeline.
References
Apple Computer, Inc. (2006). Apple Supplier Code of Conduct.
Supplier Responsibility - Apple. (2016). Apple. Retrieved 25 May 2016, from https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/
