Centre seeks TN report over Foxconn firm’s ‘ban’ on married women

The report has been sought to verify the allegations and the state government is the appropriate authority to enforce the equal pay law, it said

The Union labour ministry on Wednesday said it had sought a report from the Tamil Nadu government on a media report that Apple supplier Foxconn rejected married women when hiring for its iPhone assembly plant in the southern state.

Two unidentified women wearing backpacks stand outside a security office at the main entrance to Foxconn's factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, where workers assemble iPhones for Apple. (REUTERS)

The labour ministry has taken note of the “media reports on married women not being allowed to work at Foxconn India Apple iPhone plant” and “requested a detailed report” from the state’s labour department, it said in an official statement.

The report has been sought to verify the allegations and the state government is the appropriate authority to enforce the equal pay law, it said, citing the Equal Remuneration Act 1976 that bars discrimination between men and women when recruiting workers.

It has also asked the regional chief labour commissioner, a federal authority, to provide a “factual report”, it added.

Both Apple and Foxconn did not respond to request for comment as this paper was going to press.

In a special investigation published on Tuesday, Reuters found that Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, systematically excluded women from the hiring process at its main iPhone assembly plant near Chennai on the grounds they have greater family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts.

The investigation shines a spotlight on the Apple supplier at a time when the tech company is eyeing India as an alternative manufacturing base as it shifts its broader supply chain out of China. Most iPhones made in India are produced in the Sriperumbudur plant, about 25km west of Chennai, which was set up in 2019.

As Apple, one of the most valuable companies in the world, scales up its investments and operations in India, in December 2023, the Taiwan-based Foxconn was given approval to invest $1 billion additional funds into an upcoming Apple plant near Bengaluru airport in Karnataka, taking its total investment to around $2.7 billion.

(With inputs from Reuters)