(Reuters) - Apple Inc sent medical experts to the Shanghai factory of contractor Pegatron Corp, who concluded that working conditions did not lead to the death from pneumonia of a 15-year-old boy who had lied to gain employment.
Apple has taken various measures in response to questions on whether its products are made in sweatshop-like conditions, since about a dozen suicides from 2010 at assembler Foxconn.
The world's most valuable technology company commissioned an investigation of suppliers' Chinese factories last year by the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which in a report on Thursday said working hours at Foxconn now comply with its standard.
"Last month we sent independent medical experts from the U.S. and China to conduct an investigation of the (Pegatron) factory. While they have found no evidence of any link to working conditions there, we realize that is of little comfort to the families who have lost their loved ones," Apple said in a statement on Thursday.
"Apple has a long-standing commitment to providing a safe and healthy workplace for every worker in our supply chain, and we have a team working with Pegatron at their facility to ensure that conditions meet our high standards."
The Taiwanese company, which assembles Apple's iPhone and iPad mini, concluded from its own investigation that the death was not related to work as the employee had only recently joined, and because the assembly line environment should not cause a condition such as pneumonia, said Pegatron spokesman Charles Lin.
The employee used his 21-year-old cousin's identification to apply for the job, so the factory did not know he was underage, Lin also said.
China Labor Watch, a New York-based rights group, said the worker, who died in October, had a pre-employment physical examination on September 4 which showed he was in good health.
"Pegatron has strict measures in place to verify workers' ages before and after they are hired, and we work with health and safety experts to provide a safe working environment for each and every worker," Pegatron said in a statement.
Lin said three other employee deaths this year, in March and April, were caused by various medical conditions unrelated to work at the factory.
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Separately, the FLA in a report released on Thursday said three Chinese factories of Apple's largest contract manufacturer Foxconn, the holding company for Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, now all limit working hours to 60 per week.
"FLA's expectation is that Apple, working with Foxconn, will continue to rigorously monitor working hours to ensure that they comply with the FLA standard of 60 hours per week but also make progress toward the Chinese legal limit of 49 hours per week," FLA President and Chief Executive Auret van Heerden said in a statement.
Washington-based FLA in March last year set a deadline of July 1 this year to comply with China's weekly limit and 36-hours-per-month overtime cap, but Foxconn said it needed more time.
At that time, the FLA said some of the 170,000 employees at the factories in Longhua, Chengdu and Guanlan worked up to 80 hours of overtime per month. By May this year, the FLA said Foxconn had resolved 98 percent of issues raised in its initial investigation, including cutting working hours and overtime.
Many Foxconn workers - migrants from other parts of China - have said they are not in favor of reduced overtime as they want to make as much money as possible in a short time.
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