Foxconn hiring discrimination: NHRC faults probe; orders new inquiry

New Delhi: India's powerful human rights watchdog has admonished labour officials for failure to adequately investigate evidence of employment discrimination at Foxconn, which makes Apple iPhones, and told them to re-examine the matter, documents show.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in June ordered federal and Tamil Nadu state officials to probe Foxconn's hiring practices, after a Reuters investigation found the manufacturer excluded married women from iPhone assembly jobs at its southern India plant.

Foxconn relaxed the ban during high-production periods, Reuters found. The iPhone factory is a flagship foreign investment in India, crucial to Apple and Foxconn's plans to grow manufacturing in the country, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aim of rivaling China in electronics production.

Indian labour officials visited the Foxconn plant in July and questioned executives about employment practices, but did not make their findings public.

Reuters this month reviewed NHRC case files related to the probe after the news agency sought the records under India's Right to Information laws. The details have not been previously reported.

An undated NHRC case status document shows Tamil Nadu labour officials told the commission on July 5 that 6.7 per cent of the 33,360 women working at the Foxconn plant were married, without specifying whether they were on the assembly line. They said women employed at the factory came from six districts, "which makes it clear that a large number of female employees have been hired by the company ... without any discrimination."

The federal investigators told the commission they had interviewed 21 married women at the factory, who said they faced no discrimination over wages and promotions, according to the document.

In response, the NHRC told the labour officials in November that they did not appear to have scrutinised Foxconn hiring documents, nor addressed the core issue of discrimination against married women in recruitment. The officials had relied on current employees' testimony and "filed their reports in a routine/casual manner," according to the case details.

"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," the NHRC said, noting the labour officials were "apparently silent in this regard."

"The commission has no hesitation in stating that the authorities concerned have failed to identify and understand the core issue."

Neither the state nor federal labour departments responded to Reuters requests for comment about the NHRC's assessment. In calling for the investigations in June, Modi's government said India's Equal Remuneration Act stipulates that there should be no discrimination in the recruitment of men and women.

Apple and Foxconn also did not respond to questions about the correspondence. Both companies have previously said that Foxconn hires married women in India.

The NHRC is a statutory body with powers akin to a civil court. It can investigate human rights violations, summon officials and recommend remedial actions, including compensation payments. Last year, the watchdog asked India's federal labor department to look into reports of harsh working conditions at an Amazon warehouse near New Delhi. Amazon subsequently said it conducted an investigation and took remedial action.

In the Foxconn case, the NHRC files show the agency conveyed its dissatisfaction to government officials on November 19, and ordered them to re-examine the matter by carrying out "a thorough investigation" within four weeks.

The NHRC in its Jan. 10 response to Reuters said it could not provide further information as the case was ongoing.

Reuters' investigation into Foxconn's hiring practices was based on interviews with current and former executives, recruitment agents and job candidates, and a review of job advertisements circulated by the hiring vendors who help recruit smartphone assembly workers in India.

Many ads posted between January 2023 and May 2024 stated that only unmarried women of specified ages were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, contravening Apple and Foxconn anti-discrimination policies. Reuters reported in November that Foxconn had ordered the recruiters to remove age, gender and marital criteria in job ads