Li Qiang, the executive director of China Labor Watch said :“Conditions at the factories are so poor that most workers refuse to continue working for long.” This refers to the problem that the “technology giant Apple” was facing. The chinese workers complained that their weekly working hour was approximately 66-69 hours and they described the situation as “worse than Foxconn”. Meanwhile, the firm claimed in statement that Apple was obligating to provide a “safe and fair working conditions” to their workers.
Here is a question: how much profit did Apple make in 2013? ” $37 billion! (Apple’s $171 billion 2013: Amazing… and amazingly forgettable written by John Koetsier). In this case, Apple “used” their workers’ time and made them into money. As Milton Friedman had mentioned in “The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profit“, this is an action of “spending” Apple’s stakeholder’s money. What should Apple do to solve this problem? Rather than just verbally stated that we took this issue “very seriously”, Apple’s executive, as a responsible “agent”, should really look into their worker’s concerns. As the same time, what is ethical may not become a law, which means that there is nothing which can force a firm to have business ethics. It is one’s moral obligation to keep that in mind.
Apple Faces New China Worker Abuse Claims
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23486638
Apple’s $171 billion 2013: amazing … and amazingly forgettable
http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/28/apples-170-billion-2013-amazing-and-amazingly-forgettable/