One of Apple’s suppliers has been hit with more labor violations

Apple’s gearing up for a very big day next week, but it to the people inside it must seem like this one will never end. First the company was implicated in perhaps the biggest celebrity leak of all time, and now it’s getting wrapped up in another round of alleged labor violations thanks to one of its China-based suppliers. A report released by China Labor Watch and the environmental watchdogs at Green America maintains that some workers at a Catcher Technology factory in Suqian that produces aluminum cases for Apple products were found putting in crazy overtime hours and used toxic chemicals without without being safety trained.

A new report by two U.S.-based nonprofit organizations alleges safety and environmental violations at a China plant run by an Apple Inc. supplier, illustrating the scrutiny the technology giant and its suppliers in China face over labor issues. The report, released Thursday by Washington, D.C.-based Green America and New York-based workers-rights group China Labor Watch, alleges some workers at the Chinese factory run by Taiwan’s Catcher Technology Co. work with toxic chemicals without protective equipment and must put in excessive paid overtime of up to 100 hours a month, including working on their feet over 10 hours a day, six days a week. The organizations said they found that windows and fire exits were locked at the factory. The report didn’t specify how many times. The report also alleges that industrial waste such as metal scraps and oils were dumped into a sewer, with some ending up in a river near the facility in the city of Suqian, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province. It also says some parts of the factory produce aluminum-magnesium alloy dust, which is flammable. The nonprofits say the report is based on more than 100 interviews with Catcher employees and on the experiences of a worker who was paid by the groups to work at the plant in August.