MANILA, Philippines – Apple reiterated its stance against controversial labor practices, requiring supplier factories to pay the recruitment fees for its employees, rather than making new hires shoulder it.

Bloomberg reported that in an annual supplier audit released Wednesday, February 11, suppliers were told in October that workers on an Apple line should not be charged those expenses, a practice called bonded labor.

Apple reduced allowable fees from one month’s net wages to zero, with suppliers who use bonded labor required to reimburse foreign contract workers.

Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president for operations, said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg, “That fee needs to be paid by the supplier and Apple ultimately bears that fee when we pay the supplier and we’re OK doing that.

“We just don’t want the worker to absorb that,” Williams added.

The study, Apple’s ninth, said it conducted 633 audits covering over 1.6 milion workers and suppliers in 19 countries. The company also made calls to 30,000 workers to make sure their rights were being upheld.

Among the audit report’s topics were working hours and payments to workers. Apple said it acheieved 92% compliance with the 60-hour maximum workweek metric they set, and got back $3.96 million in excessive recruitment fees for its workers.

Bloomberg compared it to earlier figures, noting that suppliers paid $3.9 million in 2013. Since 2008, reimbursements amounted to nearly $21 million to over 30,000 workers.

The full report can be viewed here. – Rappler.com