Is Apple doing enough to control its employment practices in its Chinese factories?

During a recent internal audit of 229 factories in Asia, Apple found that several of its standards were being violated by suppliers. According to a textbook written by Kinicki and Williams (2012), these violations included breaching standards established by Apple for working hours, hazardous-substance management processes, safety practices to prevent worker injuries, and wages and benefits (p 128).
Kinicki and Williams (2012) cited four options to consider on this issue: (1) do nothing. “It is not Apple’s responsibility to manage the operation of its suppliers,” (2) “provide the results to management at the supplier firms and encourage them to follow Apple’s standards,” (3) “provide the results to management at the supplier firms and mandate that they make efforts to bring their operational policies in line with Apple’s standards. Create sanctions for those that do not meet the standards,” and, (4) “invent other options” (p. 129).
The first option was to do nothing. There has been a great deal of public scrutiny on this issue so Apple cannot ignore it unless the company is willing to assume the risk of loss of reputation which could transcend into loss on brand equity and revenues. According to Ross Eisenberry, the Vice President of the Economics Policy Institute, Apple made commitments six years ago to address these issues but nothing has changed. He said, “People have believed Apple’s commitment in the past, and if they go on making commitments and breaking them, sooner or later, that’s gonna penetrate the buying public” (Johnson, 2012).
The second option was to share the results with the supplier firms and to encourage them to follow Apple’s standards. This method may have no influence since there are no consequences for violations. Apple is a customer of the