Foxconn tells India recruiters: Nix marital status in iPhone job ads

For the June story, Reuters reviewed occupation ads posted by Foxconn’s Indian hiring vendors betwixt January 2023 and May 2024 which stated that lone unmarried women of specified ages were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, contravening Apple and Foxconn anti-discrimination policies.

Days aft the story’s publication, Foxconn HR executives instructed galore of the Indian vendors to standardize recruitment materials successful accordance with templates provided by the company, 2 of the 3 hiring bureau sources told Reuters. They besides told the vendors not to talk to the media, these radical said.

At a gathering successful precocious June, Foxconn HR executives cited media sum of the company’s hiring practices and “warned america not to usage Foxconn’s sanction successful immoderate ads going forward, and told america our contracts would beryllium terminated if we did,” 1 cause said.

“The instructions for ads were: Don’t notation the unmarried requirement, don’t notation age, nor antheral oregon pistillate either,” said the person, who similar the different sources spoke connected the information of anonymity for fearfulness of backlash from Foxconn.

Foxconn did not respond to Reuters questions astir its directives to recruiters, nor whether it had ended restrictions connected the employment of joined women for iPhone assembly roles. Apple declined to remark connected akin questions. Both companies person antecedently said that Foxconn hires joined women successful India.

Reuters could not independently find whether Foxconn had begun to prosecute greater numbers of joined women for the roles successful question. But caller changes to advertizing contented aligned with the recruiters’ accounts.

One caller Foxconn template advertisement reviewed by Reuters described smartphone assembly positions but made nary notation of Foxconn, nor age, sex oregon marital criteria. It listed benefits: “Air conditioned workplace, escaped transport, canteen facility, escaped hostel” and a monthly wage of 14,974 rupees, oregon astir $177.

In October, Reuters visited Sriperumbudur and reviewed 9 Foxconn vendor ads, immoderate successful the Tamil language, that were posted connected walls and circulated connected WhatsApp. The substance matched the template provided to the vendors.

While the ads didn’t place the employer, 2 of the 3 vendor sources said they were for Foxconn smartphone assembly positions.

“Foxconn gives america the ads to tally for hiring. We lone usage those,” a manager astatine hiring bureau Proodle told Reuters.

Reuters visited the offices of 12 Foxconn hiring vendors, 8 of which declined to sermon its practices.

One vendor, Groveman Global, had advertised successful 2023 for unmarried women aged 18 to 32 for mobile manufacturing jobs. This connection was absent successful 3 caller Groveman ads that Reuters reviewed past month.

A typical astatine Groveman’s bureau declined to remark connected the changes.

Apple has been positioning India arsenic an alternate manufacturing basal to China amid tensions betwixt Beijing and Washington. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities views Foxconn’s iPhone mill and Apple’s broader proviso concatenation successful India arsenic helping the state determination up the economical worth chain.

Following Reuters’ earlier story, Modi’s authorities ordered national and authorities investigations into hiring practices astatine the Foxconn plant. Labor officials visited the installation successful July and interviewed institution executives, but neither Modi’s authorities nor authorities officials successful Tamil Nadu made the findings public. The authorities authorities rejected a Reuters petition for a transcript of the probe study made nether India’s Right to Information Act, citing confidentiality.

Federal and authorities officials did not respond to Reuters questions astir the result of their probes of Foxconn.
Dilip Cherian, a communications advisor and co-founder of Indian nationalist relations steadfast Perfect Relations, said media scrutiny of Foxconn’s employment practices had necessitated changes to occupation advertizing due to the fact that of the reputational interaction connected the institution and its client, Apple.

Still, it remained to beryllium seen “whether this determination represents a existent alteration of bosom oregon conscionable a cosmetic and appropriately ineligible effect to the information that they person been called out,” added Cherian, who told Reuters helium does not enactment with Apple oregon Foxconn. During a sojourn to India successful August, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said joined women “greatly lend to the efforts of what we’re doing here.” He besides met with Modi, who said connected X astatine the clip that the brace discussed the Taiwan-headquartered company’s concern plans successful India.