Apple says increase in health education among workers at Bengaluru facility

As per Apple’s 13th annual “Supplier Responsibility Progress Report”, the increase in knowledge about early cancer detection as well as nutrition was 85 per cent and 60 per cent respectively. An increase of 54 per cent in knowledge about diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol was recorded among the supplier workers in India.

“As the health programme expanded to India, we partnered with St. John’s Medical College (in Bengaluru) to conduct a needs assessment of the health and well-being of supplier employees,” reads Apple’s report.

Apple has said that there has been a rise in health education in 2018 among workers at its Wistron Corporation’s manufacturing facility in India. (Image: Apple)

Under the programme, Apple is said to have trained 17.3 million supplier employees on workplace rights in the year 2018. In addition, 3.6 million employees received advanced education and skills training. Some of the initiatives in the last year include nursing rooms on site for new mothers.

Apple said in its report that all its final assembly sites for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod are now certified Zero Waste to Landfill. In 2018, Apple also added courses for App Development with Swift for supplier employees under its educational and career-building programs.

“In everything we do, people come first. We are constantly raising the bar for ourselves and our suppliers because we are committed to the people who make our products possible as well as the planet we all share. This year, we’re proud to give more people an opportunity to advance their education. Working alongside our suppliers, we’re challenging ourselves to find new ways to keep our planet healthy for future generations. Our goal has always been not just to drive progress in our supply chain, but to drive meaningful change across the industry,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer in a press release.