Foxconn’s chairman defended the company’s hiring practices on Saturday after New Delhi ordered an investigation into a Reuters report that the Apple supplier was rejecting married women for jobs as iPhone assembly workers.
“Foxconn hires people regardless of gender, but women make up a large portion of our workforce here,” Young Liu said at the opening ceremony of a hostel complex for its employees near Chennai in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
“I would like to stress that married women make a huge contribution to the efforts we are making here,” he added, his first comments since the Reuters investigation.
Liu did not answer questions from media at the hostel complex, which the state government says is “exclusive” for 18,720 female Foxconn workers. The multi-story hostel buildings are located near the factory where the iPhone is made.
The Reuters investigation, published in June, found that Foxconn systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main iPhone assembly plant in India because they have more family responsibilities than unmarried women.
Foxconn acknowledged that there were some shortcomings in its hiring practices in 2022 and said it was working to address the issues, but added that it “strongly denies allegations of discrimination in the workplace.”
The story sparked TV debates and newspaper editorials. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government ordered Tamil Nadu to submit a “detailed report” and its labor officials also visited the iPhone factory to question executives. New Delhi has yet to release any findings.
Foxconn told labor officials that its main iPhone factory in India employs 41,281 people, including 33,360 women. Of those women, about 2,750, or about 8 percent, were married.
No specific workforce figures were broken out, such as iPhone assembly, where discrimination occurred, according to Reuters.
Foxconn has been expanding in India in recent years, making iPhones and products for other smartphone brands, and plans to branch out into AirPods and chip production.
During his visit, Liu met Prime Minister Modi and many senior Indian officials and discussed Foxconn’s investment plans.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
