蘋果執行長蒂姆•庫克（timcook）回應了一份調查報告，該報告披露了該公司一家中國供應商存在虐待勞工的行為，稱他對這些指控“深感冒犯”。在《每日電訊報》獲得的發給英國員工的一封內部電子郵件中，蘋果公司高階運營副總裁傑夫·威廉姆斯（Jeff Williams）寫道，他和庫克都“對蘋果公司將違背對我們供應鏈員工的承諾或以任何方式誤導我們客戶的說法深感不快”

這封郵件是對本週英國廣播公司（BBC）釋出的一部紀錄片的回應，在該紀錄片中，在上海一家Pegatron工廠工作的臥底記者報道說，那裡的工人長時間不休息，生活條件狹窄。威廉姆斯在郵件中說，這部長達一小時的紀錄片“暗示蘋果沒有改善工作條件。他接著說，公司向BBC提供了改善整個供應鏈工作條件的“事實和觀點”，但“他們的節目顯然沒有提供這些資訊”

“讓我告訴你，沒有什麼比這更離題了。”

這家工廠為蘋果公司生產ipad和iphone，蘋果在中國擁有約1400名員工。英國廣播公司報道說，那裡的僱員被迫輪班工作，時間長達16小時，一些人在請假被拒絕後連續工作了18天。一名記者被迫與其他11名工人共用一間小宿舍。

近年來，蘋果和其他科技公司因涉嫌在供應鏈中濫用勞動力而受到越來越多的審查，其中最著名的是富士康旗下的工廠。去年，一家勞工權利監督機構指控Pegatron在其工廠違反安全和環境規定，此外，還有類似於BBC本週報道的虐待勞工指控。

作為回應，蘋果加大了對供應鏈的監控和監管力度，其年度供應商責任報告對此進行了詳細說明。威廉姆斯在內部郵件中指出，公司已經跟蹤了100多萬名供應鏈員工的工作時間，93%的員工遵守了規定的每週工作60小時的限制，不過他承認還有改進的空間。”我們還可以做得更好。我們會的，”他寫道。

“我們還可以做得更好。我們會的。”

英國廣播公司的調查還報道說，印尼一個非法礦山的錫可能正在進入蘋果的供應鏈，一些礦山在不安全的工作條件下僱用童工。威廉姆斯在郵件中辯稱，蘋果公司公開承認“來自印度尼西亞的錫最終進入了我們的產品，其中一些錫很可能來自非法礦山”，該公司已經訪問了該地區，“對那裡發生的事情感到震驚”。他補充說，蘋果公司正在積極努力追究錫供應商的責任，在與其他科技公司建立了印尼錫工作組之後。

威廉姆斯寫道：“蘋果有兩個選擇：我們可以確保所有供應商都從印度尼西亞以外的冶煉廠購買錫，這可能是我們最容易做的事情，當然也會保護我們免受批評。”但這將是一條懶惰和懦弱的道路，因為蘋果在那裡開採的錫中，有一小部分被蘋果消耗，因此它對改善印尼工人或環境沒有任何幫助。我們選擇了第二條道路，即保持參與，努力推動集體解決辦法。”

威廉姆斯的完整電子郵件如下。

UK Team,

As you know, Apple is dedicated to the advancement of human rights and equality around the world. We are honest about the challenges we face and we work hard to make sure that people who make our products are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Last night, the BBC’s Panorama program called those values into question. Like many of you, Tim and I were deeply offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a promise to the workers in our supply chain or mislead our customers in any way.

I’d like to give you facts and perspective, all of which we shared with the BBC in advance, but were clearly missing from their program.

Panorama showed some of the shocking conditi*** around tin mining in Indonesia. Apple has publicly stated that tin from Indonesia ends up in our products, and some of that tin likely comes from illegal mines. Here are the facts:

Tens of thousands of artis**** miners are selling tin through many middlemen to the **elters who supply to component suppliers who sell to the world. The government is not addressing the issue, and there is widespread corruption in the undeveloped supply chain. Our team visited the same parts of Indonesia visited by the BBC, and of course we are appalled by what’s going on there.

Apple has two choices: We could make sure all of our suppliers buy tin from **elters outside of Indonesia, which would probably be the easiest thing for us to do and would certainly shield us from critici**. But it would be the lazy and cowardly path, because it would do nothing to improve the situation for Indonesian workers or the environment since Apple c***umes a tiny fraction of the tin mined there. We chose the second path, which is to stay engaged and try to drive a collective solution.

We spearheaded the creation of an Indonesian Tin Working Group with other technology companies. Apple is pushing to find and implement a system that holds **elters accountable so we can influence artis**** mining in Indonesia. It could be an approach such as "bagging and tagging" legally mined material, which has been successful over time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are looking to drive similar results in Indonesia, which is the right thing to do.

Panorama also made claims about our commitment to working conditi*** in our factories. We know of no other company doing as much as Apple does to ensure fair and safe working conditi***, to discover and investigate problems, to fix and follow through when issues arise, and to provide transparency into the operati*** of our suppliers.

I want you to know that more than 1400 of your Apple coworkers are stationed in China to manage our manufacturing operati***. They are in the factories c***tantly — talented engineers and managers who are also compassionate people, trained to speak up when they see safety risks or mistreatment. We also have a team of experts dedicated solely to driving compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct across our vast supply chain.

In 2014 alone, our Supplier Resp***ibility team completed 630 comprehensive, in-person audits deep into our supply chain. These audits include face-to-face interviews with workers, away from their managers, in their native language. Sometimes critics point to the discovery of problems as evidence that the process isn’t working. The reality is that we find violati*** in every audit we have ever performed, no matter how sophisticated the company we're auditing. We find problems, we drive improvement, and then we raise the bar.

Panorama’s report implied that Apple isn’t improving working conditi***. Let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. Here are just a few examples:

Several years ago, the vast majority of workers in our supply chain worked in excess of 60 hours, and 70+ hour workweeks were typical. After years of slow progress and industry excuses, Apple decided to attack the problem by tracking the weekly hours of over one million workers, driving corrective acti*** with our suppliers and publishing the results on our website monthly — something no other company had ever done. It takes substantial effort, and we have to weed out false reporting, but it's working. This year, our suppliers have achieved an average of 93% compliance with our 60-hour limit. We can still do better. And we will.

Our auditors were the first to identify and crack down on a ring of unscrupulous labor brokers who were holding workers’ passports and forcing them to pay exorbitant fees. To date, we have helped workers recoup $20 million in excessive payments like these.

We’ve gone far beyond auditing and corrective acti*** by creating educational programs for workers in the same facilities where they make our products. More than 750,000 people have taken advantage of these college-level courses and enrichment programs, and the feedback we get from students is inspiring.

I will not dive into every issue raised by Panorama in this note, but you can rest assured that we take all allegati*** seriously, and we investigate every claim. We know there are a lot of issues out there, and our work is never done. We will not rest until every person in our supply chain is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.

If you’d like to learn more about our Supplier Resp***ibility program, I encourage you and our customers to visit our website at apple.com/supplierresp***ibility.

Thanks for your time and your support.

Jeff