Foxconn, a major manufacturer of Apple devices, has been excluding female candidates from assembly jobs at its flagship Indian smartphone plant because they are married. Both companies’ codes of conduct state that workers shouldn’t be discriminated against on the basis of marital status.
A Reuters investigation has found that Foxconn has systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts. S. Paul, a former human-resources executive at Foxconn India, said the company’s executives verbally convey the recruitment rules to its Indian hiring agencies, which Foxconn tasks with scouting for candidates, bringing them in for interviews and employing them.
Foxconn typically doesn’t hire married women because of “cultural issues” and societal pressures, said Paul, who said he left the company in August 2023 for a better-paying role at a consulting firm. The company’s view was that there were “many issues post-marriage,” Paul added. Among them: Women “have babies after marriage.”
“Risk factors increase when you hire married women,” he said.
Wait… I thought Apple left China because of slave(ish) labor reasons. But are still using Foxconn which is a Chinese company?
Ah found this: “Like many of its competitors, Apple has relied on China for assembling its products for years. But political and economic factors have forced the company, as well as the broader tech sector, to rethink that approach by seeking partners from across the region.” (Link
You can take the production out of China, but not China out of production…all for ‘optics’.
