TN food poisoning: Apple supplier Foxconn to restructure local team

Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group on Wednesday (December 29) said that it is restructuring its local management team after the recent mass food-poisoning incident at its Sriperumbudur factory’s offsite dormitory facility.

Foxconn said that all employees will continue to be paid while “necessary improvements” are undertaken before restarting operations. It said it will continue to provide support for staff as they return to work.

”We are also restructuring our local management team and our management systems to ensure we can achieve and maintain the high standards that are needed,” a statement said.

Meanwhile, an Apple spokesperson said that the facility has been placed on probation and that the company will ensure strict standards are met before the facility reopens.

Earlier this month, the Foxconn plant became the centre of a controversy after over 250 workers fell ill due to food poisoning at an off-site hostel. Following this, hundreds of Foxconn workers took to the streets in protest. The workers were frustrated as the company allegedly did not reveal details about the health of their colleagues, or their whereabouts. However, Tiruvallur District Collector Alby John later revealed that 256 workers had acute diarrhoeal disease on December 15, 2021. Of these, 159 had been hospitalised, while the others were treated as outpatients at different hospitals.

The protest took place on the Chennai-Bengaluru highway near Sriperumbudur for several hours on December 18. Sixty-seven of the protesting workers, who were all  women, were detained in a private hall and released 24 hours later. A freelance journalist and an activist were also taken into custody for a few hours and later released.