Indian iPhone plant fails to meet the requirements, ends up in closure

Indian iPhone plant fails to meet the requirements, ends up in closure

Following complaints about food poisoning and living conditions, Apple has placed its iPhone facility in southern India on “probation.”

Apple conducted an assessment and discovered that distant dining rooms and dorms used by employees did not meet the company’s standards. According to local media, food poisoning afflicted over 250 women who worked at the Indian iPhone Plant, with more than 150 of them ending up in the hospital.

Apple has not defined probation, although it has previously refused to issue new contracts to facilities on probation unless their issues are fixed. This sparked protests against the facility’s living conditions. The plant is located in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, employs about 17,000 people, closed since December 18.

According to a senior government source familiar with the situation, Foxconn has been responding to questions from the state government on the benefits granted to employees.

A Foxconn spokesman said that the company was revamping its local management team and taking urgent measures to upgrade facilities. He also added that all employees would be paid while the company made the required modifications to resume operations.

Apple has long been criticized for the treatment of workers in its Chinese partner factories, notably after a wave of suicides at Foxconn’s Shenzhen industrial park in 2010.