Apple's iPhone manufacturer and supplier Foxconn Technology Group’s plant based in the southern city of Chennai will stay shut for three more days, a senior government official has said in a statement.
The Foxconn Chennai unit had been due to resume some operations on Monday but is now expected to restart production with 1,000 workers on Thursday, the official for the state of Tamil Nadu told Reuters.
The official added that the state government had conducted inspections of workers' hostels.
The move follows the extension of a week-long closure over workers’ protests sparked by a food poisoning incident.
Earlier this month, more than 150 employees working at iPhone supplier Foxconn's unit had fallen sick and were hospitalised while and 256 others were treated as out-patients for food poisoning.
Meanwhile, Apple has said that it had placed India's Foxconn plant on probation after the company found that some remote dormitories and dining rooms used for employees did not meet the required standards.
Apple has put Sriperumbudur factory of iPhone assembler Foxconn on 'probation' following worker protests and an assessment that revealed substandard living conditions, saying it will ensure strict standards are met before the unit reopens.
"Foxconn's Sriperumbudur facility has been placed on probation and that the company will ensure strict standards are met before the facility reopens. We will continue to monitor conditions closely," an Apple spokesperson said in an email.
In a statement on Wednesday, Foxconn said that all employees will continue to be paid while “necessary improvements” are undertaken before restarting operations. Foxconn said it will continue to provide support for staff as they return to work. "We are also restructuring our local management team and our management systems to ensure we can achieve and maintain the high standards that are needed," a statement by Foxconn Technology Group said.
Earlier this month, the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur became the centre of controversy after over 250 workers fell ill due to food poisoning at an off-site hostel. Following this, hundreds of Foxconn workers took to the streets in protest.
The incident has thrown a spotlight on living conditions for the workers – most of them women – who reside in hostels near the factory.
The protest took place on the Chennai-Bengaluru highway near Sriperumbudur for several hours on December 18.
Reportedly, 67 of the protesting workers, who were all women, were detained in a private hall and released only 24 hours later.
The unrest at Foxconn is the second such involving an Apple supplier factory in India in a year. Earlier in December 2020, thousands of contract workers at a factory owned by Wistron Corp destroyed equipment and vehicles over the alleged non-payment of wages, causing damage estimated at $60 million.
As per a report by Economic Times, Apple started trial production of its flagship iPhone 13 at the southern Indian factory recently and the company is expected to begin commercial production of the model in India for both the domestic market and exports by February 2022.
Notably, Foxconn, Wistron and another supplier, Pegatron Corp, have together committed roughly US$900 million over five years to make iPhones in India.
(with inputs from various sources)
