Foxconn Excluding Married Women From Hiring Process for Indian iPhone Plant
Toggle Dark Mode
Foxconn opened its first iPhone assembly plant in India in 2019, as Apple began pushing its suppliers to move production out of China. While the company continues to pour money into the country in the form of additional manufacturing plants, it has faced a struggle in getting its Indian plants to operate efficiently, as the company has faced language barriers, cultural differences, and the factories’ strenuous schedules.
While Foxconn has been hiring to fill spots in its factories in India, it’s reportedly being rather particular when it comes to hiring some people. The people Foxconn won’t hire are married women, due to their “family responsibilities.”
A new report from Reuters says Apple’s manufacturing partner has been telling its recruiting officers to reject married women job seekers before they even fill out an employment application.
While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing to increase the number of women in the workforce, many Indian women are still turned away when seeking employment. This is due to the belief by employers that married women are unreliable.
S. Paul, a former human resources executive at Foxconn India, says the company’s executives communicate to Indian hiring agencies not to hire married females. Married women allegedly miss more work days due to family responsibilities and pregnancy than single women. Other sources indicate that another fear is that jewelry worn by married Hindu women may interfere with production.
The manufacturer occasionally relaxes the rules against hiring married women during labor shortages, such as when Foxconn is preparing for a new iPhone launch. Former Foxconn employees say some hiring agencies even hide a woman’s marital status to help them find employment.
Factory jobs, such as assembling electronic devices like the iPhone, are seen as a way out of poverty for workers. The jobs pay a monthly $200 paycheck and offer food and living accommodations.
Hiring agencies are violating both Apple and Foxconn’s rules for equal hiring opportunities when denying married women a job, That said, Reuters reports that four of Foxconn’s outside recruiters told prospective job candidates that only unmarried females were eligible for jobs on the assembly line.
Foxconn and Apple both say they have made moves to stop the hiring restrictions.
“When concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022 we immediately took action and worked with our supplier to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure that our high standards are upheld,” Apple said in a statement.
“All of our suppliers in India hire married women, including Foxconn,” Apple also said.
Foxconn says that during its latest round of hiring, about 25% of the women it hired were married. The company didn’t furnish exact hiring numbers or specify what jobs the married women were working.
While Apple and Foxconn claim to be hiring married women, there are no Indian laws against such discrimination based on marital status when it comes to the private sector. However, there have been court cases where the Indian Supreme Court has struck down a company’s practices of marital discrimination.
In those cases, the judges ruled there was “nothing to show that married women would necessarily be more likely to be absent than unmarried women.”
