新品发布在即 苹果中国代工工厂再被指违规

HONG KONG — With its stock near a high and its latest iPhone expected to be introduced on Tuesday, Apple is facing new accusations of violations of labor rights and workplace safety at a supplier in China.

香港——苹果(Apple)的股价接近纪录高点，其最新款的iPhone也将于周二发布，但与此同时，这家公司在中国的供应商也面临着侵犯劳工权益和违反工作场所安全规定的新指控。

The allegations involve employees at a factory in the eastern China city of Suqian that is owned by Catcher Technology, a Taiwan company, and that makes metal casings for Apple iPads and for other consumer electronics companies.

这些指控涉及中国东部宿迁市一家工厂的工人。这家工厂的所有者是台湾可成科技公司(Catcher Technology)，主要为苹果iPad以及其他消费电子企业生产金属外壳。

The employees are made to work excessive overtime and handle toxic chemicals without proper protective clothing, according to a report released Thursday by Green America, an environmental nonprofit group, and China Labor Watch, a workers’ rights group based in New York.

绿色美国(Green America)和中国劳工观察(China Labor Watch)周四发布报告称，这些工人被要求长时间加班，且在没有适当防护服装的情况下，接触有毒化学品。绿色美国是一家非营利性环保机构，而中国劳工观察是一家劳工维权组织，总部设在纽约。

Apple, like Samsung and several other multinational companies, has previously faced scrutiny over the working conditions at the factories in China where its products are made. But the allegations in the latest report suggest that the company might need to increase its vigilance further over the 200 major global suppliers that account for 97 percent of Apple’s component costs.

与三星(Samsung)及另外几家跨国企业一样，苹果在华代工工厂的用工条件也曾受到严密审视。但这份最新报告的指控意味着，苹果可能需要进一步提高警惕，对全球200家主要供应商予以监督。这些供应商占据了苹果零部件成本的97%。

In a statement on Thursday, Apple said its most recent annual audit of the Suqian plant, in May, had “found some concrete areas for improvement in Catcher’s operations, and we worked with Catcher to develop a corrective action plan.”

苹果在周四发表的声明中称，在5月份对宿迁的这家工厂进行的最新年度审计中，“发现可成科技公司的运营存在着一些具体的需要改进的地方，我们已经与可成科技公司共同制定了一项纠错行动方案。”

Apple had scheduled a follow-up visit to the plant for next month but dispatched a team immediately to investigate the allegations in the new report, Chris Gaither, an Apple spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday.

苹果发言人克里斯·盖瑟(Chris Gaither)周四在一份声明中称，苹果已经派出了一个团队对这份报告的指控进行调查，并定于下个月对这家工厂进行后续考察。

An undercover investigation by China Labor Watch at the Suqian plant last month found that fire exits were locked and that flammable aluminum-magnesium alloy dust and shavings filled the air and littered the floors of some workshops. Investigators also found that employees were forced to work as many as 100 hours of overtime a month and failed to receive the social insurance payments required under Chinese law, according to the report. It said the plant made aluminum covers for a coming iPad and parts for the iPhone 5.

中国劳工观察上个月对这家工厂的卧底调查发现，工厂的消防通道上了锁，一些车间的空气中和地板上，满是易燃的铝镁合金粉尘和废料。报告称，调查人员还发现，工人们被要求每月加班多达100小时，而且没有获得中国法律规定的社保待遇。报告称，这家工厂为一款即将面世的iPad，以及iPhone 5生产铝合金外壳。

Workers at the plant, about 300 miles northwest of Shanghai, in Jiangsu Province, were also required by Catcher to sign forms saying they had completed safety training, even though they had received none, according to the report.

该工厂位于江苏省，在上海西北约500公里处。报告称，可成科技还要求工人们在声称已完成安全培训的表格上签字，但工人们实际上根本没有受到相关培训。

China Labor Watch privately raised concerns about conditions at the Suqian plant with Apple in April 2013, after an earlier undercover investigation. According to the group, Apple responded at the time by conducting its own inspection, after which it said that Catcher would make changes, especially those related to occupational safety.

中国劳工观察在经过早期的秘密调查后，曾于2013年4月私下里向苹果提出了对宿迁工厂条件的担忧。据该组织透露，苹果当时决定开展内部调查。调查结束后，苹果表示可成科技公司将做出改变，特别是与职业安全有关的问题。

“The health and safety violations found in this factory two years in a row are startling,” said Elizabeth O’Connell, campaigns director at Green America.

绿色美国活动总监伊丽莎白·奥康奈尔(Elizabeth O’Connell)表示，“连续两年在该工厂发现的违反健康及安全规定的情况令人震惊。”

Apple’s audits showed that the plant’s aluminum-polishing systems exceeded international safety standards, Mr. Gaither of Apple wrote, while a fire safety inspection last week corrected some of the problems identified in the report, like unblocking corridors and fire exits. He said that the plant made cases for the iPad and MacBook but did not mention iPhone parts.

苹果公司发言人盖瑟写道，审计结果显示，该工厂铝抛光系统超出了国际安全标准，上周的消防安全检查纠正了报告中提到的一些问题，比如清理了走廊、打开了安全出口。他表示，该工厂生产iPad、MacBook外壳，但没有提到iPhone零件。

Regarding the allegation of excessive overtime, Mr. Gaither said Catcher had averaged 95 percent compliance, as of the end of August, with the maximum 60-hour workweek that Apple enforces.

至于过度加班的指控，盖瑟称，到八月底，可成科技公司员工的工时符合苹果规定的比例平均达到95%，苹果规定每周工作时长不得超过60小时。

“We are deeply concerned about the claims made by China Labor Watch, and we take the report very seriously,” Catcher Technology, based in Tainan, Taiwan, said in a statement on Thursday. “We are committed to following Apple’s supplier code of conduct and will investigate thoroughly.”

“我们对中国劳工观察指出的问题深感忧虑，我们认真地看待这份报告，”总部位于台湾台南的可成科技公司周四发表声明称，“我们承诺将遵循苹果公司的供应商行为准则，并将进行彻底调查。”

In response to previous allegations of poor working conditions at suppliers’ factories, Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., has placed a greater focus in recent years on auditing its sprawling global network of suppliers. The company said that last year it conducted 451 audits of suppliers, up from 298 in 2012, and that 173 of those had been first-time audits. Apple said that last month it took steps to ban the use of the harmful chemicals benzene and n-hexane at its 22 final assembly factories.

之前有指控称苹果供应商的工厂里工作条件恶劣，为此，苹果最近几年更加注重对庞大的全球供应商网络进行审计。苹果总部位于加利福尼亚州库比提诺。苹果公司表示，去年公司对供应商进行了451次审计，其中有173次为初次审计，而2012年共进行了298次审计。苹果表示，该公司上个月采取措施，禁止22家总装工厂使用有害化学制品苯和正己烷。

China remains Apple’s biggest single source of suppliers, and it is also where most of the company’s products are assembled.

中国仍是苹果最大的供应商来源国，该公司大部分产品都是在中国组装的。

In a report on Monday, analysts at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit in Hong Kong estimated that the expected release next week of the iPhone 6 could add around 1 percent a month to China’s export growth rate for the rest of this year. The analysts arrived at that figure after deducting the $10 billion or so in new iPhones that they expect will be sold locally in China this year.

美银美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)香港分部的分析师在周一发布报告称，苹果预计于下周推出iPhone 6，这可能会使中国在今年剩余时间里，月出口增长率提升大约1%。他们预计，新版iPhone今年在中国的销售额将会达到大约100亿美元（约合614亿元人民币），分析人士在扣除这部分销售额后得出了上述出口数据。