Earlier this week, Apple announced it was working with the watchdog group the Fair Labor Association to conduct special audits of a number of companies that make and assemble Apple"s devices. The first of these inspections happened this week at "Foxconn City", the name for Foxconn"s plant in Shenzhen, China.
Today, Bloomberg reports that Auret van Heerden, the CEO of the Fair Labor Association, said in an interview that the organization is " ... finding tons of issues" at that particular Foxconn plant. He added, "I believe we’re going to see some very significant announcements in the near future." van Heerden would not comment further on the FLA"s findings.
This is a bit of a different message than what van Heerden said earlier this week. He was quoted as saying the Foxconn plants" "physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm" and that "the facilities are first-class."
Apple has previously said that the FLA"s preliminary results would be made available to the public in early March on the FLA"s web site. Ultimately, Apple said the special inspections "will cover facilities where more than 90 percent of Apple products are assembled."
Apple has been taking some heat in recent weeks from watchdog and worker rights groups over the treatment of workers at plants such as Foxconn where devices like the iPhone and iPad are made. Last week, two of those groups organized a protest at Apple"s Grand Central Station store in New York City and presented a petition asking Apple to do more to protect the workers at these factories.