REUTERS
November 24, 2022 at 12:05 JST
The logo of Foxconn is pictured on top of a company's building in Taipei (Reuters)
TAIPEI--Apple’s major supplier Foxconn said on Thursday a “technical error” occurred when hiring new recruits at a COVID-hit iPhone factory in China and apologized to workers after the company was rocked by fresh labor unrest.
Men smashed surveillance cameras and windows as hundreds of workers protested at the plant in Zhengzhou city on Wednesday, in rare scenes of open dissent in China sparked by claims of overdue pay and frustration over severe COVID-19 restrictions.
Workers said on videos circulated on social media that they had been informed that Foxconn intended to delay bonus payments. Some workers also complained they were forced to share dormitories with colleagues who had tested positive for COVID.
“Our team has been looking into the matter and discovered a technical error occurred during the onboarding process,” Foxconn said in a statement.
“We apologize for an input error in the computer system and guarantee that the actual pay is the same as agreed and the official recruitment posters.”
The largest protests had died down by Thursday and the company was communicating with employees engaged in smaller protests, a Foxconn source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Taiwanese company said it would try to solve concerns and meet worker demands, with “corresponding care subsidies” offered to those who want to return to their hometowns.
The Zhengzhou plant employs more than 200,000 people to make Apple Inc. devices including the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
The person said the company had reached “initial agreements” with employees to resolve the dispute and production at the plant continued on Thursday.
Workers leave iPhone factory in Zhengzhou amid COVID curbs
October 31, 2022
Apple supplier Foxconn quadruples bonuses to staff hit by China COVID lockdown
November 1, 2022
Taiwan’s Foxconn has deal to buy former GM plant in Ohio
October 1, 2021
Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant hit by fresh worker unrest, social media livestreams show
November 23, 2022
China COVID curbs hit iPhone output, shut Shanghai Disney
November 1, 2022Taiwan’s Foxconn says to make ventilators with Medtronic
April 8, 2020
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
