Corporate Social Responsibility Foxconn\'s Hypocrisy

Corporate Social Responsibility

Foxconn's hypocrisy in their published materials showing healthy, happy employees, state-of-the-art employee care facilities including a very expensive mental health services centers make the suicides and horrible conditions even worse. Foxconn is using their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports to market their company. It is doubtful their commitment to CSR is as deep as they pretend it to be. Based on how blatant the CSR violations are at Foxconn that led to multiple suicides and special safety nets being installed around the dormitory buildings (Jorgensen, 1615) Apple has a responsibility not only to their own CSR initiatives but to the industry to clear this up with decisive action. The ironic aspect of this is Apple has in the past enjoyed a very good reputation for their CSR initiatives internally and the efforts the company makes to deliver above-average performance in the care of its employees (Moskowitz, 5).

Apple needs to take the following recommendations to preserve the quality of their reputation globally and get their suppliers to act more ethically:

1. Define minimum work and living requirements for all employees of Apple suppliers, specifically focusing on those who live onsite where assembly and manufacturing takes place. Apple needs to be very specific in their requirements, stating that workers will work a maximum of just six days straight and have a day off for rest and relaxation. Today Foxconn requires employees to work 13 straight days before they can take a single day off (Ojo, et.al.). Next, Apple needs to provide a dormitory and on-site guidelines document for its suppliers to abide by to ensure each worker has their own privacy and area of rest, despite living right at the work site. This is critically important for their psychological well-being. Third, Apple needs to define what the minimum dietary levels are, what the choices of food will be and also tell their suppliers including Foxconn that each worker is entitled to at least 10 hours off between shifts, which is enough time to rest and get sleep.

2. Apple needs to inspect all health and psychology locations every quarter to ensure Foxconn and its other suppliers are using the latest medicines and techniques for keeping their workforces healthy. A score below 98% on any audit is grounds for firing a supplier from the Apple supply chain. In conjunction with this benchmark or standard, Apple also needs to define health and safety requirements program and series of benchmarks for all suppliers, including availability of online and 24/7 medical and mental health counseling. This program Apple needs to create to drive suppliers including Foxconn into compliance include ensuring workers who are sick have the right to stay out of the factory until they are recovered from their illness. As of today at Foxconn, illness and sick time is often subtracted from the checks of workers (Jorgensen, 1615).

3. Apple needs to require all members of the healthcare professional networks supporting production workers to pass screening and achieve at least a 95% score on all testing. In addition, all training programs completed must show overall an 80% success rate for each factory or production center. If this is not achieved, the supplier must file a corrective action strategy immediately with Apple's CSR Department, stating how and when they will bring the score for training effectiveness to 80% or greater. Apple needs to hold suppliers including Foxconn to a series of benchmarks of how well their training programs are progressing and enabling greater promotional opportunities for workers. Apple has been instrumental in making Foxconn a global powerhouse in outsourced production (Ojo, et.al.). As a result, Apple has the right to demand evidence that the growth they are in large part responsible for are leading to better lives for the workers who produce their product daily.