Panorama.S2014E47.Apples.Broken.Promises
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Tonight on Panorama, the truth about Apple and your iPhone.
00:07For the first time, secret filming from inside the high-security
00:14Chinese factories where Apple's products are made.
00:18The reality of life on the iPhone production line.
00:30We find an exhausted workforce.
00:39That is surprising and really shocking that they haven't been able to get this under control yet.
00:46With staff falling asleep as they work.
00:49When they fall asleep that way, again and again,
00:52that means that the conditions of work are totally and physically intolerable.
00:59And we travel further down the supply chain to find children digging for the tin the industry needs.
01:07When you're up close, it is horrifying to see this.
01:11And find evidence that tin from illegal and dangerous mines is being supplied to Apple.
01:24The most valuable company in the world that builds the gadgets we all love,
01:29described by those inside the machine.
01:35I just want the customers to know that Apple operates heartless factories.
01:42Some came overnight.
02:03Some came overnight.
02:09Some will wait all day.
02:13But they're all here for the ritual.
02:19Apple is launching a new product, the iPhone 6.
02:26It's an amazing company.
02:28Why?
02:29Because of the people around it.
02:31You can see them cheering and the enjoyment that's happening.
02:34I don't think any other company would do that.
02:38Are you cool, people? Who's Apple?
02:42They do small things that make the customer feel a little bit happier,
02:45a little bit more excited about their products.
02:48And that's what makes them just that tiny bit different.
02:52At London's swanky Covent Garden store, there's an almost religious fervour.
02:59Apple has an extraordinary relationship with its consumers.
03:03These people, they don't feel like customers.
03:06They feel more like followers, fanatics even, to the cult of Apple.
03:12The iPhone, the iPad, the Mac, the iconic consumer accessories of our time,
03:25united under the Apple logo.
03:29People describe Apple's products with words like, oh, it's gorgeous.
03:33I love it.
03:34I mean, when have you ever heard anybody talk about other technology brands
03:38in the same sense that it's got that desirability?
03:47The stores are like boutiques.
03:49Designs and products that people around the globe want to be seen using.
03:56And I'm one of them.
03:57I have an iPhone and a MacBook computer.
04:00I bought in to the Apple brand.
04:03Apple is different.
04:05Its image is part of its attraction and its success.
04:09It's almost like there's a kind of aura that somehow Apple is better
04:13in the things it produces and the way it behaves.
04:20The products make Apple feel good too.
04:26Last year, Apple sold 169 million iPhones and 68 million iPads.
04:33Wow, that's instant gratification.
04:37Did that really happen?
04:43And that makes them a spectacularly successful company.
04:47They made $39 billion profit last year with $155 billion in the bank.
04:55All told, they're worth more than half a trillion dollars.
05:01Ralph Nader, who campaigns for more ethical business,
05:04says Apple should spend more of that money on its global workforce.
05:08Well, I would say that Apple is in the best position of any company
05:13in the world because of its massive surplus profits
05:16to clean up its supply chain and set an example.
05:20But Apple says they're already doing more,
05:23that the business model is about far more than money.
05:29Better.
05:31It's a powerful word.
05:33Apple doesn't just sell you its products.
05:36It offers an ethical production model.
05:40To reinvent.
05:42To make it better.
05:44This promotional video is voiced by Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook.
05:49And an even stronger commitment to the environment for the future.
05:53He says Apple cares from protecting people to protecting the planet.
05:58To me, that goes from everything from environmentally
06:03to how you work with suppliers, with logistics,
06:10to how you work with suppliers with labour questions,
06:16to your carbon footprint of your products,
06:19to the things you choose to support,
06:22to the way you treat your employees.
06:26Apple has made a series of promises
06:29about how the workers in its supply chain should be treated.
06:33Apple is clearly trying to make sure
06:36that it is seen to be an ethical and responsible company
06:40and therefore everybody's eyes are looking at the company
06:44to say, actually, are you fulfilling your purpose?
06:48Are you being a true leader in your category?
06:52Apple seems to be the company that offers the whole package.
06:56But now, more than ever,
06:58we will work to leave the world better than we found it.
07:02But is it true?
07:03Well, we want to investigate Apple's supply chain,
07:06the workforce, the raw materials and the factories.
07:21This is where the Apple dream is manufactured, China.
07:27Companies from around the world operate here.
07:34But an estimated million workers make Apple products,
07:38an army manufacturing, testing and assembling.
07:47Without China, Apple wouldn't be the company it is today.
07:51No other country can provide labour so cheaply
07:54and make its products so quickly.
08:03The products the world wants start their life at vast plants,
08:07like this one in the southern city of Shenzhen.
08:12But there have been problems.
08:17It was 2010 when the world started to hear that things were going wrong.
08:3414 workers killed themselves at Apple's biggest supplier,
08:38a company called Foxconn.
08:42Long hours, harsh discipline and poor living conditions
08:46were all said to be factors.
08:50The company put up anti-suicide nets
08:53to make it harder for workers to take their own lives.
08:57Foxconn says working conditions were not to blame,
09:01that wages have since been increased and working hours reduced.
09:05They say their new measures are saving lives.
09:12Apple's promise is to make things better.
09:16Since the suicides, it has published a set of standards
09:20to protect factory workers,
09:22spelling out how employees should be treated.
09:26I think what Apple's produced on paper all looks very good,
09:29in that they don't seem to shy away from reporting on the violations
09:33and the problems that they're finding in the factories.
09:36But they've got to go beyond these mere commitments on paper,
09:39saying we're bound to do better
09:41because it's not actually translating into results.
09:53This company, Pegatron, now does some of the work.
09:57It has huge factories on the outskirts of Shanghai.
10:02Pegatron got Apple work after 2010
10:05and the scandal of the way workers were being treated.
10:08This is a company where the standards are supposed to be high.
10:17So have things really changed for the workers?
10:21A labour rights group has published critical reports about Pegatron
10:25and they say Apple must be aware of the problems.
10:31It's impossible they don't know about the issues.
10:34We have repeatedly pointed out the problems in our reports,
10:38but we've seen almost no improvement.
10:51To test Apple's promise to protect workers, we need to go undercover.
10:59But that is not easy in an authoritarian state.
11:03We have used three reporters.
11:09Because of the risks, we will be protecting their identities.
11:13We want to know what life is like for an Apple worker.
11:18To get ready for the launch of the iPhone 6 and the Christmas rush,
11:23Pegatron is recruiting thousands more workers from across the country.
11:29Our reporter is at a recruitment centre
11:31hundreds of miles from the Shanghai factory.
11:37He's fingerprinted, then asked to hand over his identity card.
11:42Now, every person in China must hold an ID card by law.
11:47Our reporter is losing his.
11:50It means he can't pull out. He has to go to the factory.
11:56They said they needed to see my ID.
11:59When they got it, they didn't return it to me.
12:02I demanded that they return it. I felt helpless.
12:07So our reporter has only just joined Apple's supply chain,
12:11but the standards introduced to protect workers have already been breached.
12:17They state workers shall retain possession or control
12:21of all identity documents.
12:26Without the ID, workers can't even buy a train ticket.
12:30Last year, we also found that workers at Apple factories
12:33were having their IDs taken from them.
12:35Apple promised things would change.
12:37They responded publicly, and yet this year the problem is still there.
12:45It's a 28-hour coach journey from the recruitment centre to the factory.
12:56Workers are then sent to their new homes,
12:59Workers are then sent to their new homes,
13:02dormitories around the site.
13:05To give you a sense of the scale of this plant,
13:08these enormous buildings here, that's where the workers live.
13:12These are buildings just to house the workers
13:15who've come from out of town to work at this plant.
13:2380,000 people eat, sleep and work here.
13:29It's like a city where most of the population lives to produce for Apple.
13:44Apple has clear rules about accommodation.
13:49No more than eight individuals shall occupy one dormitory sleeping room.
13:55Well, 12 people sleep in this cramped room,
13:58so that's another breach of Apple's promises.
14:05So we've seen those pictures that you filmed with 12-bedroom dormitories.
14:09What was that like in there?
14:15Life there would be very tough.
14:17To be honest, 12 people in a room.
14:21Even a guy of my build would have to walk sideways to get in and out.
14:26The room was too narrow.
14:30I mean, this is something that could literally change
14:33throughout Apple's supply chain in less than six months.
14:36I mean, they can throw up a factory and get production going in three months
14:40when they've got orders and they've got the motivation to do so.
14:44Apple say the dormitory overcrowding has now been resolved.
14:51But listen to how the workers are treated.
14:56A supervisor from the recruitment agency says if they get lost,
15:00they're in trouble.
15:03HE SPEAKS CHINESE
15:18The workers get their ID cards back.
15:21They should never have been taken.
15:32No.
15:39Before our worker can start his new job, he must go through training.
15:46Hundreds gather.
15:48It's peak production and these sessions are happening almost every day.
15:52Apple told us factory managers are trained to behave appropriately.
15:56But we saw people being picked on.
16:03HE SPEAKS CHINESE
16:16And ordered around.
16:19HE SPEAKS CHINESE
16:27Doing as you're told continues with the admin.
16:31The forms seem to give workers choices about doing shifts
16:35that involve standing for long hours or working nights.
16:39But in reality, there's no choice at all.
16:42HE SPEAKS CHINESE
16:49HE SPEAKS CHINESE
17:05If you tick the box showing that you are not willing to give consent,
17:09he would ask us to do it again.
17:11If we did it again, he said he'd kick us out and not let us stay there.
17:19HE SPEAKS CHINESE
17:21He said if you don't do what the company asks you to do,
17:24what is the point of employing you here?
17:31It's an example of a fake audit trail.
17:34The paperwork will look as if all the workers have agreed to work nights.
17:41Apple say they investigate every concern brought to them.
17:46These are just ways to try to meet, very superficially,
17:50the demands of auditors,
17:52because it's all about trying to live up to promises that have been made
17:56without really changing business as usual.
18:00And what about health and safety in these high-tech factories
18:04with chemicals and dangerous machines?
18:07Our reporters say they got no more than a couple of hours' training,
18:12followed by an exam they had to pass, and they will.
18:16This is what happens.
18:18Exam papers are handed out and the workers chant the answers in unison.
18:30She's more like a bingo caller than an examiner,
18:33and the questions are hardly tough.
18:36So the paperwork shows workers have passed.
18:40Apple say they'll investigate, though they've seen no evidence of coaching.
18:47This is common, but if you ask Apple,
18:50they would tell you that the workers have signed a document
18:53which says they received 24 hours of training.
18:56The companies only need the signatures.
18:59Apple looks only at the signatures.
19:06Pegatron, who run the factory,
19:09say worker safety and well-being are our top priorities.
19:13They set very high standards and conduct rigorous training.
19:17External auditors regularly visit to find areas for improvement.
19:23Pegatron say they meet or exceed customer codes of conduct.
19:28Our undercover teams are now ready for the shop floor,
19:32but it will be risky.
19:34These are high-security buildings in a surveillance state.
19:40It is the ultimate secret filming challenge.
19:45Our reporters face body searches and airport-style scanners.
19:50These are heart-stopping moments.
19:53They could be jailed if they're caught.
19:56On this occasion, the guard reaches for the camera,
20:00but he sees nothing suspicious.
20:03We're in.
20:06These are the first secret camera pictures
20:09from inside factories making Apple products
20:13in the airports of China and Russia.
20:22The security cameras are over there.
20:25The old camera is here.
20:27The security cameras are over there.
20:29And this is the new camera.
20:31And this is the new camera.
20:33factories making Apple products. This is where your iPhone comes from.
20:39The workers are treated like members of a production army.
21:03We saw a culture of intimidation. This is a group of supervisors being shouted at by
21:16a senior manager.
21:33But one thing more than any other stood out on the factory floor. Apple's exhausted workforce.
21:47I have personally seen something very outrageous in the factory. Workers falling asleep while
21:53standing and operating the machines. I would see many workers sitting or lying down to
22:00sleep during break time.
22:06This reporter worked in a factory that made computer parts for Apple. It was very noisy.
22:16But even with so much noise, he saw people so tired that they were falling asleep on
22:21their breaks. And sometimes when they were supposed to be working.
22:29Apple say napping on breaks is not unusual. And they look after workers.
22:36We're measuring working hours for 700,000 people. I don't know anybody else doing this.
22:45And we're reporting it. And we're showing a level of care that I don't think, I don't
22:50see in other places. And I think it's really important.
22:57But it was the same wherever we filmed. People exhausted at work.
23:05Here one of our reporters filmed someone falling asleep as they work.
23:13And this iPhone 6 testing area has virtually no one awake.
23:21After work, I would be so tired that I could fall asleep standing up on the bus on the
23:29way back to the dormitory. If the bathroom queue was too long, I'd fall asleep on the
23:36bed within two minutes.
23:40When they fall asleep that way, again and again, that means that the conditions of work
23:45are totally and physically intolerable.
23:52So why are the workers so tired? Well, we found Apple's promises were being broken on
24:00the factory floor. All of our reporters are routinely on 12-hour shifts. The longest was
24:0716 hours. The overtime was built in as standard. Our workers didn't seem to have much choice.
24:16It's a breach of Apple's promises. They say all overtime must be voluntary.
24:29We had to work more than 12 hours every day, from 8am till 8pm, sometimes 8.30 or 9pm.
24:37We had to leave our dormitories at 7am to travel to the factory. It was 8pm when I finished
24:48my work, and I'd only get back at around 9pm.
24:55That is surprising and really shocking, that they haven't been able to get this under control
25:00yet. Because if they had the staff on the ground making sure that the factories were
25:05operating in compliance with the law, they could address these issues rather quickly.
25:11Overtime was routine, and it wasn't just the adult workers. The factory employs under-18s,
25:17and this 17-year-old was also working long night shifts.
25:36This is another of Apple's rules being broken. In Apple's promise to protect workers who
25:56are under 18, they state, juvenile workers shall not work overtime, juvenile workers
26:02shall not conduct night work.
26:13We saw pay slips that suggest illegal working hours are commonplace. One undercover reporter
26:20was even asked to sign a form consenting to hours that would be a clear breach of Apple's
26:2660-hour limit. Another reporter's long hours weren't shown on his pay slip. His overtime
26:32payments were disguised as a work bonus, so nobody could tell how long he'd worked from
26:39looking at his pay slip.
26:41We informed Apple of this last year, but Apple never pays attention to it. The factories
26:46keep doing the same thing, they try to meet Apple's requirements. The problem is still
26:50there.
26:53Apple investigated. They said hours were correctly logged, but they've asked Pegatron to change
26:59the pay slips to make them more transparent.
27:02Well, there's a lot of ways that the factories are able to kind of massage the books, and
27:08it's all electronic, and it's digitised, and so they can basically produce any kind of
27:13payroll they want, to present to the authorities, to present to the various brands that come
27:19through with their codes of conduct.
27:23Pegatron says workers are the heart of our business, and that they are encouraged to
27:27confidentially communicate any workplace issues. But all our reporters were completely
27:35overwhelmed by the work.
27:39Every time I got back to the dormitories, I wouldn't want to move. Even if I was hungry,
27:45I wouldn't want to get up to eat. I just wanted to lie down and rest. I was unable to sleep
27:51at night because of the stress.
27:58His working environment and those standards are controlled from the other side of the
28:06world, California. Last week, I was invited to Apple's headquarters. It's six weeks since
28:13we told them of our findings, and I was hoping for an interview.
28:17So this is it. This is the home of Apple.
28:21I spent three hours meeting Apple's top people.
28:27So having come all the way to California to meet them, Apple have just told us that
28:32they won't be putting anybody up for interview. It's perhaps not what you'd expect from a
28:37company that says it wants to be the most transparent in the world.
28:41Instead, we got a statement. Apple say they'll investigate our findings. They will examine
28:48sleeping during production. On ID cards, Apple says they've done more than any company to
28:54prevent the widespread abuse of migrant workers. They work with suppliers to prevent excessive
29:02overtime, and that Pegatron is averaging a 55-hour working week.
29:08But we want to go deeper into Apple's supply chain.
29:16I've come to a place known as Tin Island. This is Bangka in Indonesia.
29:29Many of the world's electronic companies get in from here. Offshore, an industrial flotilla
29:36is about to start dredging the seabed.
29:40The way they work is a 75-foot drill smashes down into the seabed and then pulls up the
29:47tin sand to be processed back here. But that is not great for the seabed and the coral
29:54when that drill arrives.
29:57The power of the dredges churns the ocean.
30:02This is the water that that boat has just dredged through, and it's absolutely filthy
30:08with sediment.
30:15This mining ship is owned by P.T. Teema, an Apple supplier. It's one of 40 they operate.
30:28But Apple has promised to protect the environment. It says suppliers should act in environmentally
30:35responsible ways. Some say that's not happening here.
30:45Campaigners say these underwater pictures show how the coral reef is dying.
30:53P.T. Teema told us the damage is temporary and it takes measures to protect sea life.
30:59Its mining activities are licensed by the government.
31:04But environmentalists say Apple has been warned the mining ships are causing damage.
31:13Apple knows because I was interviewed in person by an Apple representative. I also emailed
31:19them once and told them that this is the data about the damage, the offshore damage.
31:26If a coral reef is covered in sediment due to offshore tin mining, it cannot grow back.
31:46Thirty percent of the world's tin comes from Bangka province. Legal mining alone can't
31:52keep up with demand. We've been told of a place that's become a symbol of Bangka's tin
32:00rush.
32:09You can hear the noise from a mile away.
32:23An illegal man-made island.
32:34Dozens of pontoons lash together. It looks and sounds like one enormous floating machine.
32:42The sound of seven people is completely overwhelming. This is a man-made island of absolute chaos.
32:57Completely illegal. Very, very unsafe. It's all about tin.
33:04We've been told that tin ore from this site ends up with an Apple supplier.
33:13The work is pretty basic. In bare feet the men force a pipe into the seabed. The tin
33:21is sucked up to the deck and water is used to separate sand from the heavier ore.
33:35It's dangerous, but the workers say it's worth it.
33:43On land, whole areas of forest have been ripped away to get at the ore.
33:51This smashed landscape might seem a long way from Apple's shiny products, but the tin produced
33:59here is a key ingredient.
34:01Tin is used inside your mobile phone to solder the components of your mobile phone.
34:06The tin is used to solder the components of your mobile phone.
34:11The tin is used to solder the components of your mobile phone.
34:16Tin is used inside your mobile phone to solder the components together.
34:21So your laptop, your tablet and your mobile phone, they're all held together by tin.
34:28It isn't just Apple. All electronics companies depend on tin.
34:33And just as at sea, on land, the legal minds can't keep up.
34:40We are very concerned about the situation on Bangka Belitung,
34:45particularly about the situation of the illegal miners.
34:50Every year their numbers grow.
34:59These moonscapes are the clue.
35:05Follow the destroyed land and you'll find the illegal mines.
35:15Now, Apple says it will drive the responsible sourcing of minerals.
35:22But we've been told that tin ore from around here ends up in their supply chain.
35:29The tin ore is in the mud. The miners use jets of water to break it up.
35:35But if too much mud slips, a miner could be buried alive.
36:00When you're up close, it is horrifying to see this.
36:04Whilst we've been here, we've seen huge chunks of the walls crash down into the water.
36:10And this is not just a kind of vague threat. Miners are killed all the time.
36:16These are often family teams. We saw 14-year-old Wahid working in the mud.
36:46This is a rescue effort after a landslide.
36:51It shows the reality.
36:56Once someone is buried, they rarely survive.
37:01This is a rescue effort after a landslide.
37:06It shows the reality.
37:11It shows the reality.
37:16Once someone is buried, they rarely survive.
37:21A local doctor says the bodies show the same characteristics.
37:26Broken bones, their mouths full of sand.
37:31And then there are those left behind.
37:37I came to meet Sumyati because she lost her husband to the mud.
37:44The first body was recovered quickly. That was my husband.
37:49My brother-in-law took longer. It was deeper. That was the problem.
37:54But as we talked, I discovered something even worse.
37:59It's happened twice that my husband's died because of landslides.
38:06Both of them.
38:12Both husbands were buried at the mines.
38:18I was shocked when it happened a second time.
38:23I felt like I wanted to die, just like the first time.
38:29Apple has confirmed it gets tin from Banker.
38:37What's never been confirmed is whether illegal tin from sites like this
38:42ends up in Apple products.
38:47We need more evidence.
38:52Hi. I'm Richard from the BBC.
38:58Nobody knows the tin industry here better than this man.
39:02Johan Murod is Mr Tin.
39:05He's worked his way up through the industry and made a fortune doing it.
39:10The eagles, he designed the eagles.
39:13This house, all of our money, I got from tin.
39:19He's a director of a processing plant, a smelter.
39:23Apple has published a list of the smelters that supply it with tin.
39:28Mr Murod's company is on that list.
39:31He says all the smelters around here
39:34buy at least some of their tin through middlemen.
39:37The smelters can't tell whether it's legal or illegal.
39:4570% of the tin ingots exported overseas are produced in small-scale mining.
39:50So this is gathered by collectors and then sold to smelters.
39:55And the smelters export worldwide.
39:59So the tin's all mixed up.
40:02At the smelter, there's everything from both large and small-scale mines.
40:07It's all mixed.
40:09There's no way to know what is legal and what is illegal.
40:15So what does he think of Apple's environmental promises
40:19to make things better?
40:37So a boss at an Apple supplier says smelters can't distinguish
40:42between legal and illegal tin.
40:45Can that be true of other smelters on Apple's list?
40:49Well, Apple buys tin from the majority of smelters in the province.
40:53So if illegal tin is being mixed up,
40:56it's very likely to be in Apple's supply chain.
41:03Getting confirmation from other smelters is not easy.
41:13Hello.
41:19OK. OK, sir.
41:23OK, sir. Thank you.
41:29To get more evidence, we need to talk to the middlemen.
41:34The collectors who buy illegal tin and supply legal smelters.
41:40They're hard to track down.
41:43Eventually, we get a break.
41:45To meet a contact, we head into a rural banker.
41:49Hey. How are you?
41:52Hey.
41:54This collector buys from the area where we filmed the dangerous muddy mine,
41:59where the 14-year-old was working.
42:01He agrees to talk if we don't identify him.
42:05Does his gang supply the smelters that supply Apple?
42:09Is this from legal mines or is this from illegal mines?
42:15Could you write down the smelters that you sell to?
42:19I just need to see them written down.
42:22Just write them down.
42:28So that's Nurjana? Yes.
42:31Nurjana, they supply Apple, don't they?
42:34Just to be clear, you buy from illegal mines,
42:38you work in dangerous conditions,
42:40and you sell to Nurjana, a smelter that sells to Apple.
42:43Is that right? Yes.
42:45Nurjana was not the only Apple smelter this collector supplied.
42:50He also wrote down RBT.
42:53I checked with Apple's list of suppliers.
42:56He told me he dealt with RBT.
42:58I didn't recognise that name, but that's PT Refined Banker Tin.
43:02So two of the three smelters that he supplies deal with Apple.
43:08Apple says it goes deep into its supply chain to enforce standards.
43:13But in only a few days,
43:15we found a connection between dangerous mines and Apple.
43:24But then we heard another gang were prepared to meet us.
43:32And this group were edgy.
43:34They felt more like criminals than businessmen.
43:37Once again, they tell us they buy from illegal miners
43:41and sell to a smelter on Apple's list.
43:45So your only smelter that you sell to is RBT?
43:48Yes.
43:58Do they ask questions about where the tin ore came from?
44:05No.
44:12So this criminal dealer says he's only been doing business with RBT,
44:17a smelter that supplies Apple.
44:21RBT says it doesn't take illegal tin,
44:24and the other smelter, Nurjana, says it abides by all the local laws.
44:30Apple blames corruption and government inaction.
44:35They told us they're the first company
44:37to talk to smelters about the shocking conditions,
44:41and they helped create a group to look at the problems.
44:45But not all the members of that group seem convinced.
44:53So far, there's been no concrete action.
44:56In reality, Apple should know that the tin they use
44:59to produce electronic products originates from illegal mines
45:03and is cast or made in private smelters and then sold to Apple.
45:14Apple says it came here to Indonesia to investigate the mines.
45:19But we were only here for two weeks,
45:22and we found something shocking.
45:30We've been told collectors who sell to a smelter on Apple's list
45:34get tin from this area.
45:38So all of the men and women who are working in the pits
45:41at the bottom of these cliffs are taking their lives in their hands,
45:44but here we've found something really upsetting.
45:46This is about 70 feet of sheer sand,
45:49and at the bottom, trying to start the little landslide,
45:52is a father and his 12-year-old son.
46:20I want to help you.
46:23I feel sorry for you.
46:28I'm worried that the land will collapse.
46:32I'm afraid it will collapse from the top down.
46:36What do you mean?
46:37The land.
46:40It could collapse.
46:44I want to help you.
46:46I want to be a teacher, but my son doesn't want to.
46:55We stayed on at the mine until dusk
46:58and watched as the tin ore was washed.
47:02It's the last work the miners do
47:04before the ore is sold on to collectors.
47:08And when we left, 12-year-old Rianto was still at work.
47:15And there seems little to stop the tin he's mining
47:18ending up in Apple's products.
47:24Apple says it's a complex situation
47:27with tens of thousands of miners
47:29selling tin through many middlemen.
47:32The simplest course would be to refuse any tin
47:35from Indonesian mines,
47:37but that would do nothing to improve the situation.
47:40Apple has chosen to drive changes on the ground.
47:47Back in China, I'm leaving the cities
47:50and heading for the countryside.
47:53A thousand kilometres from Shanghai,
47:56this is the village of Huzhaipu.
47:59It's harvest, but around here, the workers are all old.
48:03The young people have gone.
48:08These villages have kind of changed.
48:10There are very young people here
48:12and there are also very old people here.
48:15There's a lot of old people here,
48:17and there's a lot of young people here.
48:19The villages have changed.
48:21There are very young people here and there are old people,
48:24but most of the young adults have moved away
48:26because there's nothing for them.
48:28They've headed to the coast, to the cities,
48:30to the factories and to the money.
48:35Zhu Yun has been a farmer here for 40 years.
48:39His sons have gone to the factories.
48:42His granddaughter is only 15,
48:44but she left this week to work for another electronics factory.
48:49With farming, they can only feed themselves and nothing else,
48:52so they need to go to factories to work.
48:55All the farmers here are in this situation.
49:01Many young people go to the factories to help their families,
49:06but it doesn't always work out.
49:09BELL TOLLS
49:17Xi Zhaokun was 15 when he left his village.
49:21That's too young to legally work at an apple plant,
49:25but using his older cousin's ID card,
49:28he got a job on the iPhone production line.
49:32He knew that our family was very poor
49:35and other people work in the factories,
49:37so he wanted to go.
49:41I told him he should wait for a couple of years,
49:44but he said, don't worry, let me go.
49:48He wanted to earn some money, which would make life better,
49:51so he went.
49:58He was in one of the factories where our reporters are working,
50:02and like them, he worked long shifts.
50:05The family were told 280 hours in just four weeks,
50:10and at the end of that month, he died.
50:14My son was fit and healthy, but died after working in the factory.
50:19He didn't have any medical problems.
50:22I wouldn't have let him go if he was unwell.
50:26Mr Xi took me to his son's grave.
50:31The family are farmers, and Zhaokun is buried in a field.
50:56Apple say independent medical experts found no evidence
51:00linking his death to working conditions.
51:04The family were given a one-off payment from the owners of the factory.
51:09But they had to sign a gagging order
51:11to say they wouldn't talk about their son's death.
51:17This is one of the factory's dirty tricks to shut the workers' mouths.
51:21They tried to seal the mouth of the family
51:23in the hope of not damaging Apple's brand image.
51:27They worry this will have a negative impact.
51:32What do you think of the company?
51:34No-one should enter that factory.
51:36If I'd known, I'd never have let my boy work there.
51:42The workers in Pegatron earned the Shanghai minimum wage
51:46about a pound an hour.
51:48We were told they work long and illegal hours
51:51because it's the only way to make a living.
51:54Now, the cost of an iPhone in the US is $650.
51:59Analysts say Apple makes $248 in profits on every phone.
52:05But factories like this only spend about $5 putting them together.
52:11Well, I think that most people would agree
52:14that it's OK to maximise profits,
52:17but when you're breaking the law,
52:19that should send a signal to the company
52:21that they need to take a new approach
52:23and they need to start looking at the problem
52:25a little bit more creatively and a little bit more proactively.
52:31It was the sheer volume of work that overwhelmed our reporters.
52:37One had to work 18 days in a row
52:40despite repeated requests for a day off.
52:44He was working more than 70 hours a week
52:47and that's yet another of Apple's broken promises.
52:52Supplier shall limit the actual hours worked by each worker
52:56to no more than 60 hours per work week.
53:01All of our reporters were left exhausted by their shifts
53:05and by the way they were treated.
53:07Thank you, Sean.
53:10When I was in the countryside, there was an ox at my parents' farm.
53:16We used the ox to plough the fields.
53:20If the ox refused to plough, it would be whipped until it did.
53:26It was similar in the factory.
53:30If we did not do as we were told,
53:33we would get insulted and scolded.
53:36It wasn't just the paid work.
53:46Many workers had to go to meetings like this
53:50before and after shifts without being paid for their work.
53:56It was a very difficult situation.
53:59We had to work 24 hours a week.
54:02We had to go to meetings like this before and after shifts
54:06without being paid for the time.
54:08Apple promises all meetings
54:10must be within the regular eight-hour shift.
54:13They're not.
54:15Apple says if it discovers unpaid meetings,
54:18it expects suppliers to backdate pay.
54:21But we found the meetings and the workload
54:24left a shattered workforce.
54:33It's hard work. It's exhausting.
54:36It's exhausting.
54:39And that's dangerous.
54:41Listen to what one supervisor tells his team.
54:44If you're sleeping,
54:46I know some people like to sleep on the table.
54:50Don't sleep on the table.
54:52That's dangerous.
54:54You'll die if you leak.
54:59This is quite dangerous
55:01because sleeping while working is likely to result in an injury.
55:05The reason why industrial injuries are numerous in China
55:08is mainly due to workers' exhaustion.
55:11Workers' fatigue leads to industrial injuries.
55:16And yet when one of our reporters tried to resign,
55:19saying he couldn't handle the hours any more,
55:22he was told he should toughen up.
55:41HE SPEAKS CHINESE
55:57Pegatron says they are carefully investigating Panorama's claims
56:01and will take all necessary actions
56:04if any deficiencies are found at their facilities.
56:08Apple told us they strongly disagree with our conclusions.
56:13No other company is doing as much
56:16to ensure fair and safe working conditions.
56:19They require employers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.
56:24They check the hours of more than a million workers
56:28and audit hundreds of workplaces.
56:30They see continuous and significant improvement,
56:34but add we know our work is never done.
56:41But this is what we found.
56:48This is where Apple products come from.
56:54These are the people who make them.
56:58I just want the customers to pay attention
57:01to Apple's appalling work conditions.
57:04Apple has been championing itself as a perfect enterprise,
57:08but it is all a facade.
57:10I don't think they care about the workers at all.
57:14If you know that there's wrongdoing in your supply chain,
57:17if you know the standards are not being applied,
57:20if you're profiting from all this,
57:22you have an obligation to do something about it.
57:25But they say that they want to do all that they can
57:29to make sure that the workers are treated with dignity and respect.
57:33I don't think they care about the workers at all.
57:36I don't think they care about the workers at all.
57:40But they say that they want to do all that they can
57:43to protect workers in their supply chain.
57:45Are they serious?
57:47Well, they have limited ambition, if that's what they're desiring to do,
57:50because it's not working,
57:52and the proof is the conditions in those factories and in those mines.
57:59Apple's model works.
58:01Ten million iPhone 6s sold in its first weekend.
58:06But we went deep into their supply chain
58:09to test Apple's commitment to the environment and to its workers.
58:16For the children digging in the mud and sand
58:19and the workers falling asleep on the iPhone production line,
58:23there are too many broken promises.