FOXCONN’S LABOUR PANGS
At a time of heightened US-China rivalries and de-risking of supply chains from the mainland, the growing scale of Apple’s local iPhone production is definitely good news. India must step up its efforts to capitalise on this process and also ensure that the US tech giant’s preferred contract suppliers — which include the Taiwanese Foxconn and the Tata Group — adhere to its highest supply chain standards in hiring and practices in the workplace. A case in point is an investigative story by Reuters that Foxconn’s iPhone assembly facility in Sriperumbudur, in Tamil Nadu, prefers not to hire married women. As the laws of the land do not bar firms from discriminatory hiring on the basis of marital status, this merits closer attention.
On its part, Foxconn has reportedly informed the government that the allegations are incorrect and may have been made by vested interests. It has also stated that 25% of its new hires are married women. According to a PTI report, the company has also informed that the discussion around married women being discriminated against for wearing metals (ornaments and jewellery) is “entirely slanted” and wearing metal in such factories is a safety issue. Foxconn has also said that the Sriperumbudur factory currently has about 70% women. In view of Foxconn’s submissions, it would obviously be unfair to pronounce the company guilty without adequate evidence. So the matter must be probed thoroughly as the report quotes several women as well as other stakeholders about discriminatory labour practices of the company. Thus, the Union labour ministry’s decision to ask for a detailed report from the Tamil Nadu government is a welcome signal. The matter must be fast-tracked.
The way forward obviously is for Foxconn to hire all women regardless of their marital status. With wages of $200 a month, it is definitely a “ticket out of extreme poverty” for all women as they head to the towns and cities from villages to seek better employment opportunities. While there is a critical need for replicating the local iPhone ecosystem to facilitate Apple’s growing level of ambition, it is necessary that workplace practices of its contractors also meet its highest supply chain standards. Foxconn has big plans to deepen its presence in India and is being aggressively wooed by several state governments like Karnataka and Telangana. Their temptation is to race to the bottom by enacting amendments to labour laws that extend working hours.
In February 2023, the Karnataka legislature passed an amendment to the Factories Act of 1948 to allow industries to extend working hours up to 12 hours a day while keeping the maximum weekly work hours at 48 hours. While this suits Apple’s preferred contractors, one of them, Wistron, which has been taken over by the Tata Group, had a bitter experience with local work culture four years ago with workers violently protesting against unpaid wages and arduous hours. Three years ago, Foxconn also faced protests against the conditions in its dormitory facility in Sriperumbudur when 250 women were treated for food poisoning. The upshot is that Apple must ensure that its contractors adhere strictly to its highest supply chain standards instead of running sweatshops. In its 2024 supply chain report, Apple states that since 2009 it has removed 25 manufacturing supplier facilities and 231 material processors for failure to meet its standards. Discrimination against married women in Sriperumbudur, if true, fails to meet such standards.
2024-06-28T05:30:05Z dg43tfdfdgfd