Inthe first findings of its investigations into labor practicesat the facilities of Apple supplier Foxconn , the Fair Labor Association articulate it launch “ pregnant issues ” at three of the troupe ’s factories in China . At the same fourth dimension , in a report released Thursday , the organisation said it also secured “ groundbreaking ceremony commitment ” from Foxconn to reduce the hours workers put in and better health and safety weather for employees .

During its more than 3000 - faculty - hour investigation , which included a actor - satisfaction survey of more than 35,000 randomly pick out Foxconn employees , the FLA uncover a number of problems at plant in Guanlan and Longhua in Shenzhen , and at Chengdu . In its investigation , the organization bet to get at the tooth root causes of the issues that employee report , as well as issue remedial actions that Foxconn can take .

Among the issues that the FLA identified were frequent examples of overtime exceeding both the Chinese government ’s legal limit point of 40 hour per week and 36 hours of overtime per calendar month , as well as the FLA ’s own Workplace Code of Conduct limit of 60 hours per calendar week , including extra time . In some font , doer were found to have put in more than seven consecutive day without 24 hours off .

In itsmost recent supplier report , Apple described reducing excessive extra time as “ a top antecedency for our provider responsibility program in 2012 . ” The society had key 108 adroitness that did n’t suffer legal demand for overtime earnings , such as pay for work holidays . Apple requires violate facilities not only to adjust their payment systems to posit the issue , but also to pay back the wages employees are due from those historical misreckoning .

The FLA said Foxconn intends to redress this pattern by committing to meeting sound overtime standards by July 1 , 2013 . In Holy Order to do so without reduce output or dropping remuneration , the fellowship plans to levy “ tens of yard of extra workers ” as well as build new lodging and canteen adeptness for them .

In addition , accidents at Foxconn facility — many of which get going unreported — foster a fear for health and safe at the facility , according to the FLA . The FLA report did find that Foxconn had better safety gadget measures for processes that involve aluminum junk , a center thatled to an plosion in the Chengdu factory in 2011 ; Apple ’s supplier report cite the stroke , stating that it cause the expiry of four employees , as well as injuring 18 others .

There are still stride to be made , however : Foxconn has already mandated that supervisor and workers describe all accidents that involve an harm , as opposed to its late insurance policy , which only required reports in the case of accidents that create work blockage .

According to the FLA , one of the roots of that problem lie in the want of employee remark into wellness and rubber procedure . The members of committees that superintend those procedure are put up by the management ; lead forrad , Foxconn severalise the FLA that it will ensure that actor representatives are involve in the process .

During its investigating , the FLA also like a shot sort out a figure of safety fortune , include bar exits , poor protective equipment , and lacking permits .

recompense was another field of worry in the story , in particular in sexual congress to extra time . The FLA found that 14 percent of prole were not fairly compensated for unscheduled overtime . Though salary at Foxconn are above Formosan averages , concerns persist that they may not be sufficient to run into the cost of life , especially in Chengdu , which has a grim minimum remuneration .

The FLA story also explained that China ’s insurance policy system is tied to provinces and cities , which cause job for the large share of migrant workers at some of Foxconn ’s manufacturing plant . For workers , claiming policy benefits in their hometown upon retreat or unemployment can be difficult , depending on whether or not the necessary infrastructure survive between the two provinces .

To battle these issues , Foxconn tell the FLA it will conform earnings to compensate workers fairly for extra time , investigate alternative private indemnity options for migratory workers , and hire the government to help transport benefits from one neighborhood to another . The FLA also plans to conduct a own survey of price of living in Shenzhen and Chengdu to determine if workers are indemnify at appropriate levels .

Workers will also be better train about union activities , include collective bargaining . As with the wellness and safety committees , the workers ’ representatives for unions largely consist of direction or supervisors put forward by the direction . Foxconn state the FLA it will attempt to improve proletarian involution in the union and its committees .

The FLA intends to affirm both Apple ’s and Foxconn ’s plans for improving the situation and continue write out public reports on their forward motion .

Apple every year releases its own supplier reports , but the fellowship announce in January that it would be joining the FLA ; in February , it asked the governing body to conductits own independent audit . In add-on to assembling product for Apple , Foxconn also contract with many other U.S. engineering science house .

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in China as the FLA released its paper , where he met with Beijing ’s mayor , China ’s frailty premier , and other regime officials . speak at an investor group discussion in February , Cook said that “ Apple takes workings condition very , very seriously , and we have for a very long fourth dimension . ”

This story was updated at 2:18 p.m. PT with more detail from the FLA ’s reputation .