Zhengzhou, China: The employees of the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China, popularly known as the iPhone city, have been protesting against the mistreatment of the workforce, including improper and late salaries, misleading hiring ads in hindrance on the assembly line, as per the Voices Against Autocracy report.
As per the reports, the Foxconn factory often offers high pay and wages to its workers along with bonuses whenever Apple launches a new model of its gadgets in the busiest season to ensure the smooth functioning of the assembly chain.
As a result, workers and college students have to take on heavy workloads during such periods and skip holidays along with other sacrifices to avail of promised bonuses by the end of the month, said VOA reports.
The reports further confirmed that the offered salaries and bonuses to the Foxconn workers are reportedly nearly 2,200 Yuan, which is (USD 324) less than what it takes to make the whole process work smoothly.
However, during peak assembly hours, the company offers to pay for extra hours and end-of-month bonuses, and when the time comes, authorities cut down the overtime bonuses to shrink basic bonuses, reports added.
Last year, Foxconn announced the recruitment through WeChat and shared a poster, which displays a sack of gold coins which presented a promise of paying 10,000 Yuan (USD 1,474) in bonuses if the workers joined and worked for 90 days when the covid outbreak came in October 2022 in China, Foxconn initiated ‘closed loop’ system.
Furthermore, the closed-loop system imposed by the company forced the workers from exiting the compound and made them be quarantined for a minimum of three days before entering the workstations, reports confirmed.
The situation in Foxconn was further explained as there were strictly timed hour-long lunch breaks, workshops with no windows that smelled chlorine, along with strict working instructions and restrictions. Additionally, the workers had to wear full gowns and masks during the whole time.
In the end, after the protests, around 10,000 yuan was offered to the company workers (USD 1,400) to the newly recruited workers who decided to leave the workplace and vowed to honour pay agreements. Around 20,000 workers have left the company in an attempt to quell restless workers who violently clashed with the police.