Wistron’s Apple factory in India committed serious violations of labour laws, report finds
- Exploitative practices such as wage underpayments, irregular hours and poor working conditions were common at the plant
- The report from the Karnataka state authorities also found the Taiwanese-run firm did not have enough staff to manage its 10,500 workers
This Week in Asia has seen a copy of the report, an internal document detailing preliminary investigations into the incident from the department, which is tasked with enforcing labour-related legislation to ensure workers’ safety.
About 150 workers were arrested on charges including unlawful assembly and rioting after thousands demonstrated against salary delays and ill treatment at the Wistron factory, which is 60km from India’s tech capital of Bangalore. Police are looking to investigate a further 5,000 people.
According to the report, the Taiwanese firm’s human resources department had poor knowledge of labour regulations and did not have enough personnel to manage the factory’s 10,500 workers, about 8,500 of whom were contractors and not full-time employees.
