Apple reportedly took years to drop a supplier that used underage labor

In 2013, Apple found that one of its suppliers, Suyin Electronics, a firm that made HDMI and USB ports for the company’s MacBook lineup, had employed underage workers. The manufacturer promised to clean up its act, but a follow-up investigation by Apple found three more underage workers, including one 14-year-old, on Suyin’s assembly lines. While Apple didn’t give Suyin new work in the aftermath of its findings, it continued to work with the firm due to some existing contracts, and it took the better part of three years before it finally cut ties.

In the other example, Apple conducted an investigation into Biel Crystal, a company that makes glass screens for the iPhone. After Apple found that “the environmental, health and safety culture in Biel is weak among all levels of management,” it called for more than two dozen corrective measures. However, one year after the investigation, Biel had yet to implement many of the improvements Apple ordered, and the two continued to work with one another partly because removing Biel from its supply chain would have left