Apple puts Foxconn India 'on probation' after protests

AppleInsider

Following the enforced closure of a Foxconn iPhone plant in India over poor working conditions, Apple has told the company it is "on probation."

Foxconn's southern India factory in Sriperumbudur had already seen its week-long closure extended to at least ten days. That closure by the local government, came after worker protests and cases of food poisoning, is expected to end on December 30, 2021.

When it does, Foxconn will not be allowed to reopen with its regular 17,000 workers, and instead must begin with only 1,000 on the assembly lines. Now, according to Reuters, Apple has informed Foxconn that it is placing the plant under what it calls probation.

Apple has not defined what probation means, nor what the criteria are for lifting it. However, an Apple spokesperson told Reuters that it had dispatched auditors to assess workers' dormitories "following recent concerns about food safety and accommodation conditions."

According to local publication, The Hindu, Apple further said that "we are working with the supplier to ensure a comprehensive set of corrective actions are rapidly implemented."

Foxconn says that it is restructuring its local management team. It also said that all employees will continue to be paid while it makes the required improvements to the working conditions.

The company did not specify what those improvements are, nor has it given any details of what Apple's "probation" means in practice. Apple has used this probation concept before, however, during its response to the riots at Wistron's India factory in December 2020.

Then Apple told Wistron that probation meant it would not gain any new business from Apple until it performed what were called "corrective actions" over worker conditions.

Read on AppleInsider

blastdoor

Apple provides a nice example of what enlightened self-interest looks like.

Enlightened self-interest is vastly preferable to unenlightened self-interest. 

jas99

Contrast Apple’s actions with those of Dell or Microsoft or essentially ANY other manufacturer of any good in any industry. 

No other company enforces high standards like Apple. 

Apple should be recognized as a leader in this area and not vilified every time we learn about an issue it is addressing. 

mac_dog

jas99 said:

Contrast Apple’s actions with those of Dell or Microsoft or essentially ANY other manufacturer of any good in any industry. 

No other company enforces high standards like Apple. 

Apple should be recognized as a leader in this area and not vilified every time we learn about an issue it is addressing. 

Exactly. I’d like to see the trolls try to justify this one. 

GeorgeBMac

jas99 said:

Contrast Apple’s actions with those of Dell or Microsoft or essentially ANY other manufacturer of any good in any industry. 

No other company enforces high standards like Apple. 

Apple should be recognized as a leader in this area and not vilified every time we learn about an issue it is addressing. 

Many hold Apple to a higher standard -- both in human rights and in its products -- than they do lesser companies.

I know that I do.  But with that higher standard also comes admiration and respect -- and loyalty.

13485

OK, I'll take this as an appropriate first step. I don't know how short of a leash this gives Foxconn, but hold them to the benchmarks Apple has obviously given them.

GeorgeBMac

13485 said:

OK, I'll take this as an appropriate first step. I don't know how short of a leash this gives Foxconn, but hold them to the benchmarks Apple has obviously given them.

My bet is that this will be resolved quickly and effectively.  Foxconn had a labor problem in China a few years ago -- in the early days of the iPhone.  They fixed it.  Foxconn is all about business and a successful business relies on all of its stakeholders (employees, vendors, customers and shareholders) pulling in the same direction.   They might be aggressive and push hard, but once it is perceived as abusive it becomes counter productive.

ronn

Going forward Apple should include language in its contracts to have its partners cover the costs of screwups like this. Foxconn should know better and has no excuse. Especially given its shoddy history in China years ago and the troubles at the Winstron factory in India earlier this year. Further, Apple should have random audits of its factories to keep partners on their toes. They need to be more proactive.

GeorgeBMac

Reuters reports on what led to this incident when tainted food sickened over 250 of the workers.
It all sounds a lot like pre-Roosevelt working conditions in the U.S  late 19th & early 20th century.

"For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling with worms were problems to be endured for the paycheck.

"Workers slept on the floor in rooms, which housed between six to 30 women, five of these workers said. Two workers said the hostel they lived in had toilets without running water.

and, like at the Westron plant:

"Foxconn contracts out the staffing of the factory to labour brokers, who are also responsible for housing the workers – mostly women – employed there.

The women who work at the Foxconn plant make the equivalent of about $140 (10,500 Indian rupees) in a month and pay Foxconn's contractor for housing and food while they work at the plant.

Most workers are between 18 and 22 and come from rural areas of Tamil Nadu, the head of a women workers' union said. The monthly pay at the plant is more than a third higher than the minimum wage for such jobs

women recruited from farming villages to work in Sriperumbudur's factories are seen by employers as less likely to unionise or demonstrate
women recruited to work in nearby factories "typically come from larger, poor, rural families, which exposes them to exploitation and reduces their ability to unionise and fight for their rights."

In response to the protest:

"Police responded to the larger, second protest by striking the male workers and then chasing and striking some of the women involved, two workers and Sujata Mody, a local union leader who had interviewed workers told Reuters.Police detained 67 women workers and a local journalist, confiscated their phones, and called their parents with a warning to get their daughters in line

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/women-force-change-indian-iphone-plant-sick-bad-food-crowded-dorms-2021-12-30/

waveparticle

GeorgeBMac said:

Reuters reports on what led to this incident when tainted food sickened over 250 of the workers.
It all sounds a lot like pre-Roosevelt working conditions in the U.S  late 19th & early 20th century.

"For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling with worms were problems to be endured for the paycheck.

"Workers slept on the floor in rooms, which housed between six to 30 women, five of these workers said. Two workers said the hostel they lived in had toilets without running water.

and, like at the Westron plant:

"Foxconn contracts out the staffing of the factory to labour brokers, who are also responsible for housing the workers – mostly women – employed there.

The women who work at the Foxconn plant make the equivalent of about $140 (10,500 Indian rupees) in a month and pay Foxconn's contractor for housing and food while they work at the plant.

Most workers are between 18 and 22 and come from rural areas of Tamil Nadu, the head of a women workers' union said. The monthly pay at the plant is more than a third higher than the minimum wage for such jobs

women recruited from farming villages to work in Sriperumbudur's factories are seen by employers as less likely to unionise or demonstrate
women recruited to work in nearby factories "typically come from larger, poor, rural families, which exposes them to exploitation and reduces their ability to unionise and fight for their rights."

In response to the protest:

"Police responded to the larger, second protest by striking the male workers and then chasing and striking some of the women involved, two workers and Sujata Mody, a local union leader who had interviewed workers told Reuters.Police detained 67 women workers and a local journalist, confiscated their phones, and called their parents with a warning to get their daughters in line

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/women-force-change-indian-iphone-plant-sick-bad-food-crowded-dorms-2021-12-30/

Meanwhile US government is very quiet on this human rights violation. 

GeorgeBMac

waveparticle said:

GeorgeBMac said:

Reuters reports on what led to this incident when tainted food sickened over 250 of the workers.
It all sounds a lot like pre-Roosevelt working conditions in the U.S  late 19th & early 20th century.

"For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling with worms were problems to be endured for the paycheck.

"Workers slept on the floor in rooms, which housed between six to 30 women, five of these workers said. Two workers said the hostel they lived in had toilets without running water.

and, like at the Westron plant:

"Foxconn contracts out the staffing of the factory to labour brokers, who are also responsible for housing the workers – mostly women – employed there.

The women who work at the Foxconn plant make the equivalent of about $140 (10,500 Indian rupees) in a month and pay Foxconn's contractor for housing and food while they work at the plant.

Most workers are between 18 and 22 and come from rural areas of Tamil Nadu, the head of a women workers' union said. The monthly pay at the plant is more than a third higher than the minimum wage for such jobs

women recruited from farming villages to work in Sriperumbudur's factories are seen by employers as less likely to unionise or demonstrate
women recruited to work in nearby factories "typically come from larger, poor, rural families, which exposes them to exploitation and reduces their ability to unionise and fight for their rights."

In response to the protest:

"Police responded to the larger, second protest by striking the male workers and then chasing and striking some of the women involved, two workers and Sujata Mody, a local union leader who had interviewed workers told Reuters.Police detained 67 women workers and a local journalist, confiscated their phones, and called their parents with a warning to get their daughters in line

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/women-force-change-indian-iphone-plant-sick-bad-food-crowded-dorms-2021-12-30/

Meanwhile US government is very quiet on this human rights violation. 

It's sometimes called "Selective Outrage".