On February 13, 2012, Foxconn admitted Apple into its Fair Labour Association. As of then, the only technological corporation to have gained membership was Apple. In general, Foxconn performs random inspections of factories that belong to its members all over the world. This assures that the Apple corporation is treating all its employees fairly. Apple stands by its supplier responsibility, which assures that the company will respect and uphold labour and human rights, worker health and safety, and that environmental impact is kept to a minimum. Apple released a statement, claiming that “Apple is committed to the highest standards of social responsibility across our worldwide supply chain. We insist that all of our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. Our actions — from thorough site audits to industry-leading training programs — demonstrate this commitment.”
However, there have been around ten suicides in Apple factories in the last year. When presented with this fact, Steve Jobs said “You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theaters and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice”. Recently, Apple has installed nets around Apple factories to prevent these tragic deaths. Apple also stated that “We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution”. Nevertheless, Steve Jobs sticks firmly by his belief of “[it] is not a sweatshop”.
Sources:
http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/02/13Fair-Labor-Association-Begins-Inspections-of-Foxconn.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1283389/Apple-boss-Steve-Jobs-defends-China-Foxconn-factory-conditions-10-suicides.html