Analysis of Unethical issue in Apple's business Case Study

Analysis of Unethical issue in Apple's business - Case Study Example Two major unethical cases were with Pingzhou Electronics and Foxconn that have hired underage persons. Apple terminated its contract with Pingzhou on learning that management was aware of underage persons on the company payroll. Such actions point out that Apple has a long-standing commitment to ensure that all parties in its supply chain work in a healthy environment and that they are adequately compensated for their services. In Apple’s supply responsibility progress report for 2013, the company has stated that it has over 200 suppliers it deals with directly, majority of whom produce software with a few large ones producing hardware (Apple Inc., 2013). The company has been hit with claims of dealing with suppliers hence it came up with an idea of independently auditing its suppliers. To reduce the many cases of litigation and bad publicity, Apple decided not to deal with suppliers who employ minors or those who underpay workers. Apple said that companies employ minors since the minors do not have bargaining power and are likely to take up any amount of salary. On the case of Pingzhou, Apple entered into a contract with them to manufacture a standard circuit board for its devices. The supply chain lasted for a long time despite a number of audits done by Apple based on claims of the company employing underage employees and paying far too little to its workers. In the year 2012, Apple joined Fair L abour Association, a body that audits and makes public unethical behavior among manufacturer. Apple auditors together with FLA ones went to Pingzhou and found out the company has seventy-four minors on its wage bill, working under deplorable conditions. The company did not make attempts to make their working conditions better or call for the minors to be sent away from working is a fair manner; instead, Apple terminated the contract, absolving itself from any wrong doing. On its hand, Pingzhou had to single-handedly pay terminal dues for the minors. Most of