Foxconn deletes age, sex, marital status criteria from TN iPhone plant hiring ads

The hiring agents who help recruit assembly-line workers for Apple’s iPhone factory at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu have been asked to remove age, gender, and marital criteria from their job advertisements.

The order came from Apple’s supplier Foxconn after news agency Reuters reported in June that married women were excluded from the eligibility criteria for jobs at the plant except for high-production phases.

Foxconn has ordered the hiring agents to remove its name from the advertisements as well, according to Reuters.

Also read: Apple sets all-time revenue record in India with double digit growth in iPad sales

Flouted policies

Foxconn outsources the recruitment of assembly-line workers in the Sriperumbudur plant, near Chennai, to third-party vendors. Foxconn conducts the final interviews and selection. It also provides the ads to run for hiring.

In June, Reuters had reported that between January 2023 and May 2024, only unmarried women of a certain age group were eligible for the assembly-line roles, flouting Apple’s and Foxconn’s anti-discrimination policies.

Reuters quoted hiring agents as saying that Foxconn HR executives had “warned” them against using the company’s name in recruitment ads or face a contract termination. The company also instructed the agents not to mention marital status, age, or gender, the latter told Reuters.

Both Foxconn and Apple had earlier told Reuters that married women were hired at the plant.

Also read: Apple iPhone exports from India zoom, thanks to subsidies

Government probe

After Reuters’ June story, the Narendra Modi government had ordered an investigation into the hiring practices at the Foxconn plant. While labour officials did carry out a probe, the findings were never made public.

Reuters reported that while a vendor named Groveman Global had advertised in 2023 for “unmarried women aged 18 to 32” its current ads do not have such language.

It also inspected a new Foxconn template ad saying “Air-conditioned workplace, free transport, canteen facility, free hostel” and a monthly salary of Rs 14,974.

(With agency inputs)