Every lithium-ion rechargeable battery in smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles requires cobalt to recharge. The insatiable demand for cobalt, driven by desire for cheap handheld technology, has tripled in the past five years and is expected to double again by the end of 2020. Approximately two-thirds of the global cobalt supply is mined in the Congo. A considerable portion of this supply is mined by an informal workforce of artisanal miners, called “creuseurs”. The extraction of cobalt from DRC has been linked to human rights abuses, corruption, environmental destruction and child labour. The greatest tragedy of all is that global tech companies have yet to devote adequate attention and resources to ensure safety, dignity, and decency for those who mine their cobalt in DRC.
A number of families have launched a landmark legal case in DC Federal Court in the United States against Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Google and Tesla for what they consider to be the companies’ complicity in the injuries and deaths of their children. The lawsuit is intended to compel the defendants to remedy the horrific conditions at the bottom of cobalt supply chains. The families and injured children are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Another child, referred to as John Doe 1, says that he started working in the mines when he was nine. The lawsuit claims that earlier this year, he was working as a human mule for Kamoto Copper Company, carrying bags of cobalt rocks for $0.75 a day, when he fell into a tunnel. After he was dragged out of the tunnel by fellow workers, he says he was left alone on the ground at the mining site until his parents heard about the accident and arrived to help him. He is now paralysed from the chest down and will never walk again.
Other families included in the claim say that their children were killed in tunnel collapses or suffered serious injuries such as smashed limbs and broken spines while crawling through tunnels or carrying heavy loads. The families say that none were paid any compensation for the deaths and injuries.
A number of families have launched a landmark legal case in DC Federal Court in the United States against Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Google and Tesla for what they consider to be the companies’ complicity in the injuries and deaths of their children. The lawsuit is intended to compel the defendants to remedy the horrific conditions at the bottom of cobalt supply chains. The families and injured children are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit argues that Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla all aided and abetted the mining companies that profited from the labour of children who were forced to work in dangerous conditions – conditions that ultimately led to death and serious injury.
The families argue in the claim that their children were working illegally at mines owned by UK mining company Glencore. The court papers allege that cobalt from the Glencore-owned mines is sold to Umicore, a Brussels-based metal and mining trader, which then sells battery-grade cobalt to Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Dell. Other plaintiffs in the court documents say they worked at mines owned by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a major Chinese cobalt firm, which the lawsuit claims supplies Apple, Dell, and Microsoft and is likely to supply the other defendants.
One plaintiff – named Jane Doe 1 – says in the court papers that her nephew was forced to seek work in the cobalt mines when he was a small child after the family could not continue to pay his $6 monthly school fee. The lawsuit claims that in April last year he was working in a mine operated by Kamoto Copper Company, which is owned and controlled by Glencore. He was working underground in a tunnel, digging for cobalt rocks, when the tunnel collapsed and he was buried alive. His family say they have never recovered his body.
Other families included in the claim say that their children were killed in tunnel collapses or suffered serious injuries such as smashed limbs and broken spines while crawling through tunnels or carrying heavy loads. The families say that none were paid any compensation for the deaths and injuries.
One of the central allegations in the lawsuit is that Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla were aware and had “specific knowledge” that the cobalt they use in their products is linked to child labour performed in hazardous conditions, and were complicit in the forced labour of the children.
The families argue in the court papers that all companies named as defendants entered into commercial “ventures” with the mining companies operating in DRC, and all gained significant financial advantages from the widespread illegal mining of cobalt by children, which continues to enter global supply chains.
The court papers claim that Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Google and Tesla all have the authority and resources to supervise and regulate their cobalt supply chains and that their inability to do so contributed to the deaths and injuries suffered by their clients.
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