Indian labor officials visited a Foxconn factory in the country’s south this week and asked top brass about the company’s hiring practices, Reuters reported.
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Reuters reported that Indian labor officials visited a Foxconn factory in the country’s south this week and asked top brass about the company’s hiring practices. reject married women From iPhone assembly work.
A five-member team from the federal government’s regional labor department visited the Foxconn plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu state on July 1 and met with company directors and human resources officials, regional labor commissioner A. Narasaiah told Reuters by phone. Had a conversation.
Foxconn There was no immediate response to a request for comment, while apple did not respond to Reuters questions about the visit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last week asked state officials and the federal government’s regional chief labor commissioner’s office to provide detailed reports on the matter following a Reuters investigation into recruitment practices at manufacturing plants.
“We are gathering information and asking companies to submit documents such as company policies, recruitment policies” as well as evidence of compliance with labor laws and information on maternity and retirement benefits, Narasiah said. “They told us they didn’t discriminate.”
Narasiah said Foxconn told labor officials that the plant employed 41,281 people, including 33,360 women. Citing information submitted by Foxconn, he said about 2,750 of these women (about 8%) were married.
Narasaiah said Foxconn did not break down employee numbers into specific areas such as iPhone assembly, where Reuters reported that discrimination existed. He added that labor inspectors interviewed 40 married women at the factory and they did not report any discrimination.
Narasiah said he has no current plans to inquire with Foxconn’s third-party recruiting agents, which find candidates and bring them to the factory for interviews.
Reuters investigation A report released last week found that Foxconn systematically excluded married women from assembly jobs at its main iPhone factory in India on the grounds that they had more household responsibilities than unmarried women. Foxconn’s human resources department and third-party recruitment agencies cited family responsibilities, pregnancy and higher absenteeism as reasons for not hiring married women.
The report also found that Foxconn Taiwan had relaxed its rules against hiring married women during periods of high production.
The story sparked debate on television channels, newspaper editorials and calls from opposition figures and women’s groups, including within Modi’s party, to investigate the matter.
In response to a Reuters investigation, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged recruiting missteps in 2022 and said they had worked to fix the problems. However, all of the discriminatory practices at the Tamil Nadu factory documented by Reuters occurred in 2023 and 2024.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has previously said it “strongly refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form of employment discrimination.”
Apple said that all suppliers, including Foxconn, employ married women. “When concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022, we took immediate action and worked with our suppliers to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure Our high standards are maintained.
Indian law does not prohibit companies from discriminating on the basis of marital status in hiring, although Apple and Foxconn’s policies prohibit such practices in their supply chains.
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