Apple's contract manufacturer Foxconn had to shut down its factory located near Chennai in December over labor challenges around hygiene issues. The unit, which was under fire for various reasons, is now scheduled to reopen on January 12.
A wire agency quoted K Selvaperunthagai, the legislator from the Sriperumbudur state assembly constituency that houses the manufacturing unit, to indicate that the unit would resume operations on Wednesday with 500 workers back in action.
Foxconn has not officially announced its decision on reopening. Apple, which had put the Taiwanese contract manufacturer on notice, has also not come out with any statement.
But Foxconn has already agreed to all demands made by the employees, who had struck work following an incident of food poisoning at the workers' hostel. The subsequent protest threatened to turn violent before the police moved in to make some preventive arrests. And the plant was quickly shut for the crisis to blow over.
The company has promised "to improve the temporary employees" working and living conditions by expanding their living areas, upgrading bathing facilities and providing drinking water, among other improvements."
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Will the iPhone 13 production plan be met?
Whether all its problems are over or not is not clear. What happens to Apple's notice is also not known yet. Workers have also not said anything on the offer made by the company. But the reopening of the plant is crucial for Foxconn for it to manage the production schedule for the iPhone 13.
Foxconn is said to have invested an additional $350 million in the unit to help build an exclusive production line for Apple iPhone 13. The production has already gotten into trial stage, while commercial production is likely to begin in February. The new investment is part of Foxconn's long-term development in India.
The Sriperumbudur plant of Foxconn currently rolls out iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and iPhone 12 models. Foxconn also has an unit in nearby Andhra Pradesh.
Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is Apple’s most important iPhone assembler, and has plants in many parts of the world, aside from India. Apple accounts for about 40% of the Taiwanese company’s total sales.
Meanwhile, the local State government has also said that it would build a hostel facility with a capacity to house tens of thousands of workers from various industries to address the concerns about standards of dormitories and dining facilities.
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