Apple Releases List of Its Suppliers for the First Time Apple released a list of its major suppliers for the first time, bringing the company up to par with the practices of many other big American corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Nike, which have released similar lists in the past. Labor rights groups and journalists have asked Apple to release such a list for years, believing that knowing the identity of the company's suppliers could shed light on whether Apple's partners are treating their workforces responsibly. Releasing the list could also bolster the efforts of shareholder advocates of corporate social responsibility pressuring Apple to improve conditions in overseas factories, where labor abuses have been documented. In the past, Apple has declined to identify all but a small number of its biggest suppliers. The Cupertino, Calif., company posted the list of suppliers - 156 in all, accounting for 97 percent of what Apple says it pays to its suppliers - on its Web site on Friday. It is part of what Apple calls its supplier responsibility report, a document typically published in February each year discussing the quality of labor practices and human rights at the companies manufacturing Apple devices and their parts. It summarizes the results of audits Apple says are conducted studying labor, discrimination, worker health and safety, environmental and other practices. In the report, Apple said the audits revealed that 93 supplier facilities had records indicating that more than half of their workers exceed a 60-hour weekly working limit. Apple said 108 facilities did not pay proper overtime as required by law. In 15 facilities, Apple found foreign contract workers who had paid excessive recruitment fees to labor agencies. Apple said 229 audits were conducted as part of the report, an 80 percent increase over the number performed the prior year. The company said that the facilities where repeat audits were done have shown fewer violations and that the vast majority improve their audit scores over the years. This is sixth such report Apple has issued. The company began publishing the reports on its suppliers after reports of poor working conditions at Hon Hai Precision Industry Company's Foxconn, a Chinese manufacturer of Apple products. Apple said in the report that it recently became the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit organization that aims to improve conditions in factories around the world. The company said it will allow the association's auditing team to measure the performance of Apple's suppliers against an association code of conduct and to publish the results on its Web site.