E-Paper
Apple manufacturing partner Wistron may restart Karnataka plant next week
The Taiwanese manufacturing giant produces Apple's iPhone-7 and iPhone-SE among other products at its plant in Narasapura.
Wistron, Apple Inc's manufacturing partner, on Tuesday said that it has put in place new hiring, payroll systems and is looking forward to restarting operations at its plant in Narasapura in Kolar, about 62 kms from Bengaluru, after violence at its site led to its shutdown late last year.
Though the statement does not fix a timeline for reopening of the plant, people closely aware of the developments said that the plant could reopen in less than a week. Hindustan Times first reported this story on February 4.
"Since the events at our Narasapura facility in December, we have been working hard on improvements across the board to raise standards and fix the issues. All employees have been promptly and fully paid, and we implemented new hiring and payroll systems to ensure everyone is paid correctly and provided the correct documentation going forward," Wistron said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Taiwanese manufacturing giant produces Apple's iPhone-7 and iPhone-SE among other products at its plant in Narasapura.
The manufacturing operations at the plant have been shut since December 12 when a protest by contract workers over non-payment of wages, unexplained salary cuts and long work hours among other reasons, took a violent turn.
Videos of hundreds of people setting fire to company vehicles, damaging property and screaming profanities against Wistron flooded social media and made global headlines. The incident threatened to dent Karnataka's pro-investor friendly image and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship 'make in India' campaign.
At least two Karnataka government commissioned reports pointed out serious irregularities by the company and its workforce contractors who were blamed for taking a lion's share of workers wages that eventually led to the crisis.
"We will be delivering enhanced training programs for all workers, and have put in a place a new system for workers to get information and raise any concerns they may have, anonymously. We are looking forward to restarting our operations and welcoming back team members and we thank them for their patience and support as we worked through corrective actions," Wistron said in its statement.
Apple had also suspended new businesses to Wistron after its own preliminary investigation potined to lapses and violation of its supplier code of conduct guidelines.
Apple on Tuesday said that for the last eight weeks it has tried to ensure all necessary systems were in place at the Narasapura facility.
"A comprehensive set of corrective actions has now been completed and Wistron has restructured their recruiting team and enhanced training and support for workers," Apple said in its statement.
The Cupertino, California-based company added that its employees and independent auditors will remain on site to validate that the new processes are effective.
"Wistron remains on probation and we will monitor their progress closely," Apple said.
Senior government officials in the Karnataka industries department said that police verification of around 6000 employees was complete and updated licences had been issued to the company.
The suspension of new business had given an unexpected lift to rival suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron, who are angling to capture a larger share of Apple's business orders in India as well as from other companies.
The development has also come as a relief to the contract workers, as many were in hiding after Wistron made a police complaint against over 7000 people for the violence, arson and loot.
"I submitted all my documents 15 days ago and my verification was also done. But we are yet to receive any date of joining," said one contract worker of Wistron, requesting not to be named. The worker, who has been with the company for around six months, said that she was paid her wage dues.
The worker's sibling, who was jailed for his suspected role in the violence, was not so fortunate. The father, a daily wage labourer, had to pledge his land with the court and bailed his son who claims to be innocent.
"I was added to a WhatsApp group and the police suspected that whoever was in that group was involved in the violence. I had gone there for my first shift and left when the violence started," said the 21-year-old contract worker.
"I went to work due to our problem and now I don’t even want to be part of the company," the worker added.
Several others were also jailed and later let go either on bail or were let off after an investigation by the police.
Though Wistron had initially pegged damages at ₹437 crore, including over ₹400 crore in stolen products, it revised the loss estimate between ₹26-52 crore after the company's share went into a free fall in the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
