Written by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India's powerful human rights watchdog has admonished labor officials for not adequately investigating evidence of employment discrimination in India. Foxconn (SS:), which makes iPhones from Apple (NASDAQ:), asked them to reconsider the matter, the documents show.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in June ordered federal and Tamil Nadu state officials to investigate Foxconn's hiring practices, after a Reuters investigation found that the manufacturer excluded married women from iPhone assembly jobs at its plant in southern India. Reuters found that Foxconn eased the ban during periods of high production.
The iPhone factory is a major foreign investment in India, which is crucial to Apple and Foxconn's plans to grow manufacturing in the country, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal to rival China in electronics production.
Indian labor officials visited the Foxconn factory in July and questioned executives about hiring practices, but did not announce their findings.
Reuters this month reviewed National Human Rights Commission case files related to the investigation after the news agency sought the records under India's right to information laws. Details have not been previously reported.
An undated National Human Rights Commission case document shows that labor officials in Tamil Nadu told the commission on July 5 that 6.7% of the 33,360 women working at the Foxconn factory were married, without specifying whether they were on the assembly line. They said that the women working in the factory belong to six regions, “which shows that the company employed a large number of female employees… without any discrimination.”
Federal investigators told the committee they interviewed 21 married women at the plant who said they faced no discrimination in pay and promotions, according to the document.
In response, the National Human Rights Commission told labor officials in November that they did not appear to have scrutinized Foxconn's employment documents, nor addressed the underlying issue of discrimination against married women in employment. The officials relied on the testimony of current employees and “submitted their reports in a routine/informal manner,” according to details of the case.
“The presence of a certain number of female employees at the present time does not answer the question of whether the company actually discriminated against married women at the time of employment,” the National Human Rights Commission said, noting that labor officials are “apparently” silent in this regard. “
“The committee does not hesitate to say that the relevant authorities failed to identify and understand the underlying issue.”
Neither state nor federal departments of labor responded to Reuters' requests for comment on the NHRC's assessment. In its call for investigations in June, Modi's government said India's Equal Pay Act provides for non-discrimination in the employment of men and women.
Apple and Foxconn also did not respond to questions about the correspondence. The companies have previously said that Foxconn employs married women in India.
The National Human Rights Commission is a legal body with powers similar to a civil court. It can investigate human rights violations, summon those responsible, and recommend corrective action, including the payment of reparations.
Last year, the watchdog asked India's federal labor ministry to look into reports of harsh working conditions at an Amazon (NASDAQ:) warehouse near New Delhi. Amazon later said it had investigated and taken remedial action.
In the Foxconn case, National Human Rights Commission files show that the agency conveyed its displeasure to government officials on November 19, ordering them to review the matter by conducting a “thorough investigation” within four weeks.
The National Human Rights Committee said in its response to Reuters on January 10 that it could not provide further information because the case was still ongoing.
Reuters' investigation into Foxconn's hiring practices was based on interviews with current and former executives, recruiting agents and job candidates, and a review of job advertisements distributed by recruitment vendors who help recruit smartphone assembly workers in India.
Several advertisements published between January 2023 and May 2024 stated that only single women of certain ages were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, which contradicts Apple and Foxconn's anti-discrimination policies.
Reuters reported in November that Foxconn had ordered recruiters to remove age, gender and marriage criteria in job ads.
