Apple, Microsoft Class Action Alleges Cruel Use of Child Labor

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla from numerous anonymous plaintiffs who claim that the companies are benefiting from the use of child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to mine cobalt.

The Apple class action lawsuit states that young children are being made to work full-time dangerous jobs and are being maimed and sometimes killed by tunnels that collapse during the course of their work.

“Defendants Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla are merely the latest to join the list of rapacious exploiters that have given the DRC a particularly horrific history of being pillaged and plundered and its people brutalized and exploited,” the child labor class action lawsuit notes.

The DRC has many of the minerals that are needed in the making of various products manufactured by the defendants. Such materials include cobalt, tin, copper, tungsten, gold, and tantalum, the child labor class action lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs say cobalt is an important piece of every lithium-ion battery that is used in the devices that the companies manufacture. That said, two-thirds of the global cobalt supply is found in the “copper belt” region of the Haut-Katanga and Lualaba Provinces in the DRC.

“Put simply, the hundreds of billions of dollars generated by the Defendants each year would not be possible without cobalt mined in the DRC,” the plaintiffs claim.

The sourcing of this cobalt has allegedly encouraged child labor in the DRC to the detriment of local youth.

“Defendants know and have known for a significant period of time the reality that DRC’s cobalt mining sector is dependent upon children, with males performing the most hazardous work in the primitive cobalt mines, including tunnel digging,” the class action lawsuit notes.

The plaintiffs are representative of the young cobalt miners, some of whom are reportedly as young as six-years-old and work in harsh and dangerous conditions that are prohibited by the ILO Convention No. 182, the child labor class action lawsuit claims.

The child miners make around $2-3 per day and perform hazardous and dangerous work that can kill or maim them, the plaintiffs allege. One plaintiff allegedly had his legs crushed while mining cobalt in dangerous conditions for Huayou Cobalt – the company which reportedly sells the mineral to Apple and Microsoft. 

The class action complaint also alleges that children are many times coerced into cobalt mining due to injuries that their parents have suffered while performing the same tasks. Sometimes, they are reportedly forced to work in the mines after their home village is bulldozed to make more space for a new mining site.

The plaintiffs also claim that the defendants Apple, Alphabet, Dell, and Microsoft have joined model programs to create a false portrayal that they have attempted to prevent the horrors of cobalt mining by children.

“Defendants are knowingly participating in, supporting, and providing the essential market for cobalt that has caused the explosion of production by young children,” the child labor class action lawsuit states.

Apple has also been the subject of a class action lawsuit filed by consumers who claim that their devices release radiation above legal levels. In both of the class actions, plaintiffs allege that the company puts profits over the well being of people.

How do you feel about young children mining for cobalt under such deleterious conditions? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Terrence P. Collingsworth of International Rights Advocates.

The Child Labor Class Action Lawsuit is Jane Doe 1, et al. v. Apple Inc., et al., Case No. 1:19-cv-03737, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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