By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s highly effective human rights watchdog has admonished labor officers for failure to adequately examine proof of employment discrimination at Foxconn (SS:), which makes Apple (NASDAQ:) iPhones, and advised them to re-examine the matter, paperwork present.
The Nationwide Human Rights Fee (NHRC) in June ordered federal and Tamil Nadu state officers to probe Foxconn’s hiring practices, after a Reuters investigation discovered the producer excluded married ladies from iPhone meeting jobs at its southern India plant. Foxconn relaxed the ban throughout high-production intervals, Reuters discovered.
The iPhone manufacturing unit is a flagship overseas funding in India, essential to Apple and Foxconn’s plans to develop manufacturing within the nation, in addition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of rivaling China in electronics manufacturing.
Indian labor officers visited the Foxconn plant in July and questioned executives about employment practices, however didn’t make their findings public.
Reuters this month reviewed NHRC case recordsdata associated to the probe after the information company sought the information underneath India’s Proper to Info legal guidelines. The main points haven’t been beforehand reported.
An undated NHRC case standing doc reveals Tamil Nadu labor officers advised the fee on July 5 that 6.7% of the 33,360 ladies working on the Foxconn plant have been married, with out specifying whether or not they have been on the meeting line. They mentioned ladies employed on the manufacturing unit got here from six districts, “which makes it clear that a lot of feminine staff have been employed by the corporate … with none discrimination.”
The federal investigators advised the fee they’d interviewed 21 married ladies on the manufacturing unit, who mentioned they confronted no discrimination over wages and promotions, in keeping with the doc.
In response, the NHRC advised the labor officers in November that they didn’t seem to have scrutinized Foxconn hiring paperwork, nor addressed the core concern of discrimination in opposition to married ladies in recruitment. The officers had relied on present staff’ testimony and “filed their reviews in a routine/informal method,” in keeping with the case particulars.
“The presence of (a) sure variety of feminine staff at current doesn’t reply the query (of) whether or not the corporate had really discriminated in opposition to the married ladies on the time of recruitment,” the NHRC mentioned, noting the labor officers have been “apparently silent on this regard.”
“The fee has no hesitation in stating that the authorities involved have did not determine and perceive the core concern.”
Neither the state nor federal labor departments responded to Reuters requests for remark in regards to the NHRC’s evaluation. In calling for the investigations in June, Modi’s authorities mentioned India’s Equal Remuneration Act stipulates that there needs to be no discrimination within the recruitment of women and men.
Apple and Foxconn additionally didn’t reply to questions in regards to the correspondence. Each corporations have beforehand mentioned that Foxconn hires married ladies in India.
The NHRC is a statutory physique with powers akin to a civil court docket. It might examine human rights violations, summon officers and suggest remedial actions, together with compensation funds.
Final yr, the watchdog requested India’s federal labor division to look into reviews of harsh working circumstances at an Amazon (NASDAQ:) warehouse close to New Delhi. Amazon subsequently mentioned it performed an investigation and took remedial motion.
Within the Foxconn case, the NHRC recordsdata present the company conveyed its dissatisfaction to authorities officers on Nov. 19, and ordered them to re-examine the matter by finishing up “an intensive investigation” inside 4 weeks.
The NHRC in its Jan. 10 response to Reuters mentioned it couldn’t present additional data because the case was ongoing.
Reuters’ investigation into Foxconn’s hiring practices was based mostly on interviews with present and former executives, recruitment brokers and job candidates, and a evaluate of job ads circulated by the hiring distributors who assist recruit smartphone meeting employees in India.
Many advertisements posted between January 2023 and Might 2024 said that solely single ladies of specified ages have been eligible for smartphone meeting roles, contravening Apple and Foxconn anti-discrimination insurance policies.
Reuters reported in November that Foxconn had ordered the recruiters to take away age, gender and marital standards in job advertisements.
