Business Ethics: Apple, Inc.

1112 Words3 Pages

Apple is a company facing a lot of ethical dilemmas. Since it is such a large and rapidly growing company, they face a lot of scrutiny from the media. Apple also faces a lot of pressure to be competitive in the technology market. As a result of this, companies tend to cut costs in as many ways as possible, some of which aren’t always ethical. One of the most typical ways businesses cut costs is by lowering production costs, which entails outsourcing for cheap labor. However, in order for labor to be made cheaper many sacrifices have to be made, which tend to be forced upon the workers by lowering wages, making working conditions unfavorable, and often by employing child labor.

One of Apple’s major ethical issues is the problem of labor. This is a very important problem in today’s world because businesses have a tendency to ignore basic human rights in their never ending competition to make as much money as possible. Outsourcing, using child labor, and overworking employees are all major ethical and legal violations committed all the time by many high profile companies, and often unjustly ignored as it is unfair to the people forced to work in such terrible conditions.

Foxconn, one of Apple’s major manufacturer’s, recently had a breakout of suicides amongst their workers because the working conditions were so awful. Workers are often forced to work continuous shifts through meal times and work up to 100 hours overtime in a single month, even though the legal limit is a mere 36. And to make it even worse, Foxconn now makes their employees sign a contract saying that if an employee commits suicide as a result of the horrendous conditions, the family is not even allowed to sue them. Instead of cutting ties with Foxconn upon recei...

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Lee, A. (2011, May 6). Inside Foxconn's Factory: Report Exposes Conditions At Apple Manufacturer. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/foxconn-factory-conditions_n_858619.html

Moon, B. (n.d.). Sony and Apple Spat Over App Store E-Books May Hit Kindle. Welcome to Portable Electronics at About.com. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://portables.about.com/od/ebookreasers/a/Sony-App-Rejection.htm

Viswanathan, Â. (2011, November 2). Apple App Store - developer license agreement. Welcome to Mobile Devices: Resources on Mobile Applications, Mobile Apps Development, App Store News and Mobile Operator Updates. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/mobileappbasics/a/Why-Apple-Revised-Their-Developer-License-Agreement.htm

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