Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct

This article discusses Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct and its importance to the company’s social responsibility. It covers the company’s stance on empowering workers, labor and human rights, safety and health, the environment, and accountability. The article also highlights the changes in Apple’s Development Report and the progress made in critical key areas such as health, safety, working hours, and worker education.

Running Head: APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct
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APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
Introduction
In order for Apple Inc. to produce high quality goods, suppliers take the biggest
responsibility. Just like the other departments in the firm, suppliers have duties which they need
to achieve for the organization to operate in ethically established supplier code of conduct. In
order for supplier code of conduct to be operative, Apple has gone the extent of supply chain by
putting in place its environmental and social principles (Beske & Seuring, 2014).
Among the duties of suppliers there is making sure that they are responsible to each
transaction made with Apple. Another role is ensuring they form a nontoxic setting for
organizational employees and members of the staff. Apple Inc. requires every supplier to handle
employees with maximum integrity and values ("Handle Challenges With Transparency and
Integrity", 2017). All suppliers at Apple are all expected exhibit the utmost obligation in
protection of human rights.
Apple’s stance on:
a) Empowering workers
The company empowers its workers through education. Apple Company is very
dedicated to providing and expanding learning openings to its employees taking part in its supply
chain (Khan, 2016). For example, from the year 2008 more than 861,000 employees have taken
advantage of Apple’s Supply Employee Education and Development package. The package
provides open trainings i.e. English, economics and other departments. Currently, Employee
Education and Development package has been extended past the native tutorial room
environment to iPad-based learning program so as to empower employees.
b) Labor and Human rights
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APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
With regard to labor and human rights, Apple requires every of its suppliers to handle
their employees in a respectable and ethical manner (Hollingworth & Valentine, 2015). Every
supplier who does business with the company is expected to demonstrate the highest
commitment in order to protect workers’ rights. Some of these comprise of abiding by a
maximum 60-hour workweek. For instance, by the previous year, about 92% of all the suppliers’
workweeks were much compliant with the company’s 60-hour maximum standards.
c) Safety and Health for Apple
Apple Company insists on safe and healthier facilities for all of the workers. Worker
safety is a very vital thing for the company. According to the new research, it was discovered
that well-trained managers as well as employees are very important in the company (Ledenyov &
Ledenyov, 2015). For instance, at Apple Company, during 2014, the participants in the
company’s Environment, Health and safety Academy were able to launch over 870 projects in
their respective facilities in order to improve their working conditions. In addition to this, the
company also initiated a very extensive mapping program in order to strengthen the chemical
management process across all the supply chain.
d) The environment
Apple Company holds their products and the processes to the highest environmental
standards ("Apple surpasses Microsoft as world's most valuable tech company", 2010). Because
of precious resources that exists, the company is committed in conserving such resources. For
instance, through the Clean Water Program, the company is able to conserve the half a billion
gallons of fresh water. In addition to this, the company is also making efforts to conserve
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APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
environment through educating its managers about air pollution control among other subjects in
its academy.
e) Accountability
Apple gest deeper into the supply chain depart to implement its social responsibility code
policies. Improvement and accountability are among the main aims of Apple. Because of this,
the company continually strengthens its supplier code of conduct in order to assist in
implementation of a safer and a more ethical working condition. For instance, in 2014, the
company’s auditors conducted over 633 comprehensive audits. In case of any noncompliance,
the company partners with the suppliers so as to work onsite and drive the desired change. In
addition to this, the company is also determined to raise the bar even higher.
How Apple’s Development Report has changed
Following the eighth annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, Apple Company
has mainly focused on the progress education, health and safety. According to the report, the
company has made significant progress on ensuring that its supplier’s workers are treated in a
fair way. In general, the report mainly focused on some of the improvements the company has
made in critical key areas for instance as in health, safety, working hours and worker education.
In the current progress report, Apple performed over 633 audits on the supplier in 19
countries. In addition to this, it also made calls to about 30,000 workers in ensuring that they are
handled in a non-discriminatory manner. With regard to the issue to do with education, the
company has trained over 2.3 million employees regarding employee rights and introduced a
new app-centered learning package through the application of iPads on about ten websites.
Furthermore, the company has also made safety and health a top priority through enrolling about
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APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
156 new suppliers and about 392 additional participants in its EHS academy. This was launched
back in 2013 (Apple, 2015). Its main goal was to increase the education concerning fire safety,
chemical management as well as ergonomics. This is a big change when the figures are
compared to the last years report which had a fewer number of progress reported.
According to this year’s report, the company has increased the environmental standards
which are expected to be upheld by the suppliers. According to the previous report, some of the
issues were considered to be less serious breaches for instance disposal of hazardous waste at the
non-approved facilities. These have now been upgraded to a more unacceptable violation. The
company has made about 50% increase in the number of environmental audits that were
conducted. The report also confirms that all of its tantalum suppliers have been independently
verified to be making use of conflict-free sources. The company also added that new programs
have been designed so as to reduce the usage of water in its suppliers. This is a big change when
it is compared with the previous year’s report.
According to the report, to total number of audits done have relatively increased when
compared to the previous years. For instance, the number of total audits increased to 633 from
the previous year’s 451 audits made. This shows how the company has become focused with it
comes to matters to do with accountability. In addition to this, the number of those who have
participated in the Workers’ Rights Training have as well increased. The total annual
participation increased to 2.3 M people from the previous year’s 1.5 M people. This also shows
that this year, the company has really made significant improvement in the matters to do with
worker’s right and accountability.
Importance of Supplier Code of Conduct to How Apple’s social responsibility.
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APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
The Company is dedicated to achieve high principles of social and social responsibility as
well as its ethical code. For this reason, its suppliers are expected to provide a safe working
condition, treat all the worker with dignity and with a lot of respects. In addition to this, the
company is expected to act in a fair way and in an ethical manner. Also, the suppliers are
expected to use the environmentally responsible practices in the process of making products or
when performing any services for the company. The suppliers are expected to function according
to values enshrined in the company’s Code of Conduct. They should fully comply with all the
applicable laws and regulations.
Suppliers in the company are not required to discriminate any employee in relation to his
or her gender, disability, age, nationality, marital status, ethnicity, race, political affiliation
gender identity and religion. By keeping this in mind, the company is able to operate within its
code of conduct thus operating as a social responsible organization.
Apple’s suppliers are supposed to recognize, assess and run the safety and occupational
health via an ordered process engineering control, administrative controls, and elimination of
hazards. Supplier also need to offer employees job-related as well as most appropriately
preserved individual caring tool as well as guidelines related to their right application. When the
suppliers follow what is provided on the company’s Supplier Code of Conduct, it puts the
company in a position of operating as socially liable firm.
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APPLE’S SUPPLIER CODE OF CONDUCT
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2547-y
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