NEW DELHI / BENGAL (Reuters) – Apple Inc. has put supplier Wistron Corp on trial, saying on Saturday it will not award the new deal to the Taiwanese manufacturer until it addresses how workers were treated at its plant in southern India.
The first findings of an Apple audit following the violence at the Wistron plant in the Indian state of Karnataka revealed violations of the “Supplier Code of Conduct,” the technology giant in Cupertino, California, said in a statement.
Contract workers upset over unpaid wages destroyed iPhone property, equipment and devices on December 12, causing millions of dollars to Wistron and forcing him to close the plant.
Apple said Wistron failed to implement proper hours management processes, which “led to late payments for some workers in October and November.”
Wistron acknowledged on Saturday that some workers at the Narasapura plant in Karnataka were not paid properly or on time and removed an executive director to oversee his work in India.
Apple said it will continue to monitor Wistron’s progress on corrective action.
“Our main goal is to make sure that all workers are treated with dignity and respect and are promptly compensated,” Apple said, adding that it continued to investigate the plant’s problems, which are about 50 km outside the southern technology center. from Bengaluru and assembles an iPhone model.
“This is a new facility and we recognize that we have made mistakes as we expand,” Wistron said in a statement. “Some of the processes we have implemented for the management of employment agencies and payments need to be strengthened and updated.”
Wistron said it is restructuring its teams and creating 24-hour hotlines for employees to make anonymous complaints.
“Apple has sent a strong message to its suppliers, telling them unequivocally that it must meet its standards,” said Neil Shah of Counterpoint, a Hong Kong technology researcher.
“In the long run, it should make suppliers more cautious and likely create fewer such headaches in public relations for Apple.”
MANUFACTURING SETABILITY
Apple’s probation will delay production of Wistron smartphones and affect production pressure in India, where it has pledged to invest about 13 billion rupees ($ 177 million) over the next five years as part of its smartphone production incentive plan. from New Delhi.
Wistron had plans to make another iPhone model at the Narasapura plant and planned to hire up to 20,000 workers a year, a source told Reuters earlier.
But it has failed to cope with the rapid expansion of the workforce and violated several laws, Karnataka state officials said after a factory inspection following the violence.
The number of workers has risen to 10,500 from 5,000 authorized in a short period of time, the Karnataka factory department said in a report, which was reviewed by Reuters.
“The human resources department has not been adequately established with staff who have a solid knowledge of labor law,” the inspection report concluded on 13 December.
Wistron responded to Reuters emails asking for comments on the listed violations.
Other violations highlighted in the report included insufficient payment of wages to contract workers and housekeeping staff and forcing female staff to work overtime without legal authorization.
The findings of this inspection and another preliminary government audit confirm the dissatisfaction with unpaid salaries and poor attendance registration systems, reported in interviews with Reuters by at least half a dozen Wistron workers.
Wistron’s probation will likely affect Apple’s plans to expand into India, a market it has bet on to expand its production base beyond China.
Apple began assembling its first iPhone model in India through Wistron in 2017. It has now stepped up assembly operations, with Foxconn in southern India and another top supplier Pegatron set to begin local operations.
($ 1 = 73,5700 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru and Sankalp Phartiyal in New Delhi; Edited by Shri Navaratnam and Alexander Smith