Inspections at China Apple to take two weeks

Inspections of workplace conditions at Apple's Foxconn factories will take a fortnight to complete and findings from the exercise will be made available for public viewing.

In a phone interview with Bloomberg today, Louis Woo, chairman of Foxconn's retail unit and a spokesman for the Taipei-based company, said the assessments would take about two weeks and include at least four campuses in China.

Inspections by the watchdog Fair Labor Association have been underway since Monday at the Chinese plant, which manufactures products for the American technology giant, following reports that workers were overworked and underpaid at the Foxconn plants.

Under the agreement with the association, Apple granted inspectors unrestricted access to its Foxconn, Quanta and Pegatron facilities. These three contract manufacturers account for 90 percent of Cupertino's product assemblies.

Taiwan-owned Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of Apple products. It is estimated to employ more than 1.2 million people over 18 countries. In previous reports, some of its employees had committed suicide or protested against work conditions.

The FLA's findings and recommendations are expected to be posted on its Web site, fairlabor.org, in March.

The Fair Labor Association was set up in 1999 to monitor workplace conditions around the world. Set up by former United States President Bill Clinton, it includes participants such as Nike and Nestle. In January, Apple became the first technology company admitted to the Fair Labor Association.