和碩改進上海iPhone代工廠工作條件
With growing scrutiny on its iPhone manufacturing plant, Pegatron Corp. has been working to make changes this year to its Shanghai facility.
和碩聯合科技股份有限公司(Pegatron co., , 簡稱：和碩)今年一直努力改進其上海iPhone代工廠，這家工廠現在正面臨越來越多的審查。The Taiwan-based Apple Inc. supplier on Wednesday confirmed that four workers had died of illnesses recently at the Shanghai factory, but Pegatron and Apple said their investigations indicated that the deaths weren't linked to work conditions.
總部位於臺灣的和碩是蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)的供應商，該公司週三證實，其上海工廠的四名員工近期因病死亡。但和碩和蘋果聲稱，調查表明員工死亡與工作條件無關。Even before the most recent wave of scrutiny, Pegatron has been making changes. Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin said Pegatron has built four new dormitories in Shanghai this year to ease crowding, with the number of workers in a dorm room dropping to 8-10 from 10-12. As the company's production ramped up this year, it had doubled its labor force in Shanghai to more than 100,000, resulting in cramped living conditions for workers.
在最近一輪審查開始前，和碩已經對上海工廠的工作條件做了改進。公司首席財務長林秋炭(Charles Lin)說，和碩今年在上海新建了四棟員工宿舍以緩解住宿條件擁擠的情況，建成後每間宿舍人數從10-12人降至8-10人。隨着今年和碩產量的提高，其員工總數也增長了一倍，達到10萬多人，導致宿舍擁擠不堪。
Because of the housing shortage, some workers also had to live off campus in housing that Pegatron rented, which resulted in a longer commute for them, Mr. Lin said. These workers moved back to the Pegatron campus after the new dorms were completed.
由於宿舍房間不夠，一些工人不得不搬到公司在廠區外租賃的房屋中居住，導致上班路程變長。林秋炭說，這些員工在新宿舍建成後就搬回了廠區。Pegatron is also working to increase automation of particularly dangerous tasks, he said. Automation has long been viewed as too expensive for the assembly of highly customized and difficult-to-make products like iPhones. However, Apple's manufacturers like Pegatron and Foxconn have been investing in automation and are looking to let robots take over at least some of the more basic tasks.
他說，和碩還在努力提高危險工作的自動化水平。長期以來人們一直認爲，將自動化技術應用於iPhone這樣的高度定製化且難以製作的產品組裝會過於昂貴。但和碩和富士康(Foxconn)等蘋果公司的代工企業一直在投資自動化技術，希望機器人至少能在一些更加基礎性的工作上取代工人。Apple has a team working with Pegatron to ensure its factory conditions meet the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's standards, said Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu.
總部位於加州丘珀蒂諾的蘋果公司發言人Carolyn Wu稱，蘋果公司的一支團隊正在與和碩共同努力，以確保工廠條件達到蘋果公司的標準。Pegatron is treading a familiar road. Foxconn has had to make sweeping changes at its factories in response to external scrutiny, which has been particularly close for suppliers of Apple, the world's most valuable company.
和碩正在步某些蘋果代工商的後塵。蘋果作爲全世界最具價值的公司，其供應商一直處在外界尤爲緊密的注視之下，其中富士康爲了應對外界監督，不得不對其工廠進行了一番徹底的改進。Meanwhile, Apple has been advertising job openings for 'supplier responsibility' managers in recent months. The company has been diversifying its base of suppliers this year, making it increasingly complicated to oversee work conditions at all its suppliers.
與此同時，蘋果公司近幾個月一直在招聘“供應商責任”經理。該公司今年一直努力實現供應商的多元化，這使其更難監督所有供應商的工作條件。
