Written by Aditya Kalra and Praveen Paramasivam
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s opposition Congress party urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Saturday to question Foxconn over hiring practices after Reuters reported that the Apple supplier was rejecting married women from iPhone assembly jobs in the country.
The government has requested a detailed report from the state of Tamil Nadu, where the main iPhone factory is located and where Reuters exposed Foxconn’s hiring practices. The story has sparked debate on television channels, newspaper editorials, and calls from women’s groups, including within Modi’s party, to investigate the matter.
Congressman Karti P. Chidambaram wrote in a letter to Labor Minister Mansukh Mandaviya that Foxconn receives “substantial incentives” from the federal government and the company should be asked to explain its practices to ensure they comply with “Indian laws and values.”
“While foreign investment is critical, it should not come at the expense of ignoring our cultural values,” Chidambaram wrote in the letter posted on X.
Apple, Taiwan-based Foxconn and the department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the congressional letter.
A Reuters investigation has found that Foxconn systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main iPhone factory in India on the grounds that they had more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts.
Foxconn’s recruiting agents and human resources sources cited family duties, pregnancy, and high absenteeism as reasons for not hiring married women.
In response to the investigation, published on Tuesday, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged to Reuters that there were gaps in their hiring practices in 2022, and said they worked to address those issues. But all of the discriminatory practices documented by Reuters at the Sriperumbudur plant occurred in 2023 and 2024.
Foxconn said it “strongly refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form.”
Apple said that all of its suppliers, including Foxconn, employ married women, and “when concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022, we took immediate action and worked with our supplier to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure adherence to our high standards.”
Foxconn jobs in India offer food, housing and a monthly salary of about $200. In China, six online job advertisements reviewed by Reuters showed workers assembling iPhones at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant could earn between $400 and $800 a month. The ads did not mention marital status or gender requirements.
“Even though they do not discriminate in China, can they do anything in India?” Vasuki Umanath of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), another Modi opponent, told Reuters on Thursday.
“Trade unions, women’s welfare organizations and democratic forces must raise their voice against this discrimination.”
The Communist Liberation Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) said this week that action must be taken against what it called an “exploitative and discriminatory (recruitment) practice.”