Apple Inc. said the Fair Labor Association began auditing supplier Foxconn Technology Group’s plants in China, the first inspections in an effort to respond to criticism of conditions for workers making its gadgets.

Assessments will take about two weeks and include at least four campuses in China, Louis Woo, chairman of Foxconn’s retail unit and a spokesman for the Taipei-based company, said in a phone interview Tuesday. More than 10 association representatives are now at two factories in Shenzhen and others in Chengdu and Zhengzhou, he said.

Apple, which became the first technology company to join the Washington-based labor group last month, has been criticized by human-rights organizations over conditions at suppliers such as Foxconn. Apple released a list of suppliers for the first time in January and publishes an annual report detailing instances of labor and environmental violations by some manufacturers.

As part of its assessment, the Fair Labor Association will interview thousands of employees about working and living conditions, including health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management, Cupertino, California-based Apple said in its statement. 

Representatives are inspecting Foxconn facilities and surveying workers at Longhua and Guanlan, Woo said. Many of the representatives speak Mandarin, he said.

Labor-rights inspectors started Monday at a Shenzhen plant known as Foxconn City, Apple said in a statement. Inspections also will be conducted at Foxconn factories in Chengdu at Apple’s request, with similar audits of Quanta Computer Inc. and Pegatron Corp. plants later this year, Apple said.

Pegatron Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin said in a phone interview Tuesday that he’s aware of Apple’s supplier code of conduct and hasn’t been informed of any inspections. The Taipei-based company assembles iPhones.

Carol Hsu, a spokeswoman for Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Quanta, which makes iPods and notebooks for Apple, declined to comment.

Protesters demanding that Apple develop a worker-protection strategy to prevent abuse at its suppliers’ facilities presented the company with petitions signed by more than 250,000 people last week.

IPads Seized

In addition to criticism about workers’ conditions, Apple is grappling with a dispute that has led some iPads to be removed from shelves. A newspaper in China’s Hebei province reported that authorities seized iPads from retailers there because Hong Kong-listed Proview International Holdings Ltd. claims to own the iPad name.

Proview also is asking China’s customs bureau to block imports and exports of iPads, Roger Xie, the lawyer representing Proview, said Tuesday.

Apple climbed 1.9 percent to $502.60 at the close in New York Monday ― the first time the stock rallied above $500 ― after a two-week gain spurred by the iPad maker’s first-quarter earnings report.

The company, burnished by the iPhone’s success and memorials to co-founder Steve Jobs, displaced Google Inc. as the top company in Harris Interactive’s poll of corporate images. Apple topped the public’s ratings for vision and leadership, products and services, financial performance and workplace environment ― four of the six categories Harris tracked.

The Fair Labor Association was set up in 1999 to monitor workplace environments globally in an initiative by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Its participants include Nike Inc. and Nestle SA.

(Bloomberg)