The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has criticised labour officials for not thoroughly investigating allegations of employment discrimination at Foxconn’s iPhone assembly plant in India. The watchdog has instructed federal and Tamil Nadu state officials to reassess Foxconn’s hiring practices after reports revealed the exclusion of married women from assembly line jobs, a ban reportedly eased during peak production periods. The NHRC’s directive comes as Foxconn and Apple aim to expand manufacturing in India, aligning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of boosting electronics production in the country.
According to a report in Reuters, labour officials conducted a visit to the Foxconn plant in July but did not release their findings publicly. Documents that it reviewed showed that Tamil Nadu labor officials informed the NHRC that 6.7 per cent of the 33,360 women employed at the plant were married, without specifying if they worked on the assembly line. The officials claimed that the recruitment of female employees from six districts “makes it clear that a large number of female employees have been hired by the company … without any discrimination.” However, the NHRC noted that the officials did not address the core issue of discrimination against married women.
The NHRC stated that labor officials “filed their reports in a routine/casual manner” and failed to scrutinise Foxconn’s hiring documents. The commission emphasised that “the presence of (a) certain number of female employees at present does not answer the question (of) whether the company had actually discriminated against the married women at the time of recruitment,” highlighting that officials were “apparently silent in this regard”.
The commission has ordered a “thorough investigation” to be conducted within four weeks, reflecting its powers akin to a civil court to recommend remedial actions, including compensation. Neither the state nor federal labour departments responded to requests for comments on the NHRC’s assessment. The NHRC’s intervention aligns with the government’s assertion that India’s Equal Remuneration Act prohibits discrimination in recruitment based on gender.
(With Reuters inputs)