Conditions for people who make your gadgets are improving – barely

Apple’s latest report on the conditions in its supplier factories included an announcement that it was banning “bonded labor” in its supply chain. The move applies to workers who travel across borders and pay to get jobs in its supplier factories.

Yet since the report came out, reaction is already fading. Some industry observers applauded Apple’s action and moved on. But it’s worth pausing a second to consider what the somewhat dry language in Apple’s announcement is really talking about. After all, the thing Apple banned would be beyond intolerable to any American worker. The process works like this: Employment agencies recruit workers. They then charge them placement fees for jobs, often in foreign countries. Those fees end up putting workers in debt to the agency. If that wasn't bad enough, according to Apple's own audits, some agencies held the passports of bonded workers in safes until their debts were paid off. It's pretty close to what some might call indentured servitude. And that's what Apple -- the tech company that has taken a lot of heat and also offers the most information about its factory conditions -- has only just stopped.