The reviews were conducted not in the context of Apple’s own Supplier Code of Conduct, but the FLA’s Workplace Code, and applicable Chinese law.

“This multi-pronged approach produced a range of both quantitative and qualitative data, allowing FLA to develop an in-depth understanding of working conditions, particularly during peak production periods,” the report says.

The results: the report says the FLA observed more than 50 violations of its code or Chinese law across areas such as safety, pay, working hours, and more. However, these violations were mostly tame, and certainly did not contain any bombshell type findings. The most serious of the issues were as follows, according to the FLA:

• Number of working hours per week exceeding Chinese law in all three factories during peak periods, and some employees worked seven days or more straight without the required one day off period. It found workers averaged about 56 hours per week, which is above the Chinese legal limit of 40 regular hours per week and 36 overtime hours per month, but many workers like the extra hours and overtime pay, it turns out.

In fact, the worker survey at the Foxconn plant found that almost half of the 35,000 workers surveyed by the FLA said they thought their working hours were reasonable and 34% would like to work more hours to make more money. Only 18% thought hours were too long.

• Probably to no one’s surprise, it found Foxconn workers felt largely “alienated” in their jobs, especially with regard to issues like health and safety, where they felt they were not being listened to. (SCDigest wonders how many workers in Western factories also feel a bit “alienated.”)

• There are cases of unpaid overtime in some situations, often as a result of the time system, which is based on 30-minute increments. So, if a worker logs 25 minutes of overtime, they are not compensated, or if they work 58 minutes they are only paid for 30 minutes. However, the FLA report says Foxconn workers are paid better than average Chinese workers, that the overtime issues only impacted 14% of employees, and that in general the time keeping system and pay are correct.

Foxconn Workers Largely Happy with Hours Worked

Source: FLA Audit of Foxconn Facilities

In fact, the report says it found that "wages are paid on time and are above the applicable legal rates. The legal minimum wage in Shenzhen is RMB1500, while the starting wage at Foxconn is RMB1800. After the probation period, wages go up to about RMB2200. Sick leave payments are higher than the local law requirement, with workers compensated 70% as opposed to the minimum law requirement of 60%. Overtime hours were also paid at the appropriate premiums."

It is probably true that some of these policies have happened in the past couple of years, as the scrutiny of the Foxconn operations has increased dramatically, and the company has in fact raised worker pay three times even as legal minimum wages have also increased in China.

Foxconn has promised to make a number of changes in response to the audit results, such as limiting the amount of hours to the Chinese legal threshold, which it says will happen by July of 2013.

It also said it will continue on in its previously announced efforts to install thousands of robots to reduce its labor costs and headaches - which of course will cause thousands of workers to lose their own jobs.

Foxconn also is said to have agreed to allow unions to be formed that are not run by management, but in China generally the only unions allowed are those that operate under the wing of the Communist Party, so how that will play out is unclear.

The full FLA Report can be found here: FLA Audit of Foxconn/Apple Factories

What is your reaction to this Foxconn/Apple audit report? Do you agree the headlines seem away overblown based on the actual findings? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.