Apple, Samsung, Sony and other major technology companies have been accused by the human rights organization Amnesty for not being able to insure that at work by extract the minerals used in their products children do not participate. According to his report, Amnesty states that he has found seven-year-old children working in dangerous conditions in the Republic of the Congo, of which most were working in cobalt mines.
Cobalt is a key component in lithium batteries. Amnesty in his report he gathers the case of Paul, a 14-year-old orphan who has come to spend 24 hours in a row in the mines of this mineral. The information also ensures that there is up to 40,000 boys and girls in the south of the Republic of the Congo they are exercising this hard work.
The Apple response It has not been expected, ensuring that they they never tolerate bad working conditions and who are proud of “having led the industry as pioneers in new security guarantees". In addition, they also claim that regular inspections are carried out to ensure that child labor is not present in their supply chains. If Apple catches one of its suppliers using child workers, that provider is obliged to finance the safe return of children, their education, continue paying their salary or offer them a job upon reaching the majority of working age.
As a leading company, Apple is always in the spotlight in everything it undertakes, and this includes the working conditions in its supply chains. Annually publishes a progress report on the responsibility of suppliers where it provides information and conditions that arrive from the factories of its suppliers. The problem here is that the big companies they can't control it absolutely everything. If Apple hires a company to do mining work in the Republic of Congo and it hires children, it is very difficult for them to find out what they are doing. Of course, once he finds out he has to take exemplary drastic measures like the ones he describes in his defense. For the good of all and, above all and what is discussed in this article, of children.
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