After food poisoning incident, work at Foxconn plant to start in phased manner

Only less than 100 workers have returned to one of the dormitories at Foxconn’s plant in Sriperumbudur, a month after the unit was shut down following a food poisoning incident in which over 100 women workers had taken ill.

The plant, which manufactures Apple iPhones is scheduled to reopen on January 12, but full operations involving its total workforce of 15,000 may take some time. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin recently informed the Assembly that the plant would reopen on January 12 with a strength of 500 workers.

The unit will operate in full swing once corrective measures in the wake of the food poisoning incident, and change in local management are implemented by the management.

Also read: TN food poisoning: Apple supplier Foxconn to restructure local team

Apple had placed the plant on probation after the food poisoning incident, but Foxconn had apologized and promise to take corrective action.

“For the past several weeks, teams from Apple along with independent auditors, have been working with Foxconn to ensure a comprehensive set of corrective actions are implemented in the offsite accommodations and dining rooms at Sriperumbudur. Workers will start to return gradually as soon as we are certain our standards are being met in every dormitory and dining area,” an Apple spokesperson told the media on Monday.

With Foxconn still on probation, the company in a statement said that it has been working to fix issues at the offsite dormitory facilities at Sriperumbudur and provide better facilities to employees.

“We have implemented a range of corrective actions to ensure this cannot happen again and a rigorous monitoring system to ensure workers can raise any concerns they may have, including anonymously,” the statement read.

The company has said the rest of the workforce will be gradually called as and when each of the offsite dormitories are ready and approved.