• Foxconn, an Apple supplier, has revised its hiring policies in India, removing age, gender, and marital status criteria.
• This change follows a Reuters investigation revealing Foxconn's exclusion of married women from jobs at its iPhone assembly plant.
• Foxconn's HR executives have instructed hiring vendors to standardize recruitment materials and avoid media interaction.
• The impact of these changes on Foxconn's workforce and reputation is yet to be seen, highlighting the importance of workplace equality.

In a significant move towards equality and non-discrimination, Foxconn, a major supplier for Apple, has ordered its hiring agents in India to eliminate age, gender, and marital status criteria from job advertisements. This directive comes in the wake of a Reuters investigation published on June 25, 2024, which revealed that Foxconn had been excluding married women from jobs at its primary iPhone assembly plant in India. The company, however, relaxed this practice during high-production periods.

Foxconn, which employs thousands of women at its iPhone factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, outsources the recruitment of assembly-line workers to third-party vendors. These agents scout for and screen candidates, who are then interviewed and selected by Foxconn.

The investigation by Reuters reviewed job ads posted by Foxconn's Indian hiring vendors between January 2023 and May 2024. These ads stated that only unmarried women of specified ages were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, contravening Apple and Foxconn's anti-discrimination policies.

Following the publication of the Reuters story, Foxconn's HR executives instructed many of the Indian vendors to standardize recruitment materials in accordance with templates provided by the company. They also instructed the vendors not to speak to the media, creating a sense of secrecy around the company's hiring practices.

Foxconn's Response to Media Coverage

At a meeting in late June, Foxconn HR executives cited media coverage of the company's hiring practices and warned the vendors not to use Foxconn's name in any ads going forward, threatening termination of contracts if this directive was not followed.

Foxconn did not respond to Reuters' queries about its directives to recruiters, nor whether it had ended restrictions on the employment of married women for iPhone assembly roles. Apple also declined to comment on similar questions. Both companies have previously stated that Foxconn hires married women in India.

Reuters could not independently verify whether Foxconn had begun to hire a greater number of married women for the roles in question. However, recent changes to advertising content aligned with the recruiters' accounts.

One new Foxconn template ad reviewed by Reuters described smartphone assembly positions but made no mention of Foxconn, nor age, gender, or marital criteria. It listed benefits such as an air-conditioned workplace, free transport, canteen facility, free hostel, and a monthly salary of 14,974 rupees, or about $177.

In October, Reuters visited Sriperumbudur and reviewed nine Foxconn vendor ads, some in the Tamil language, that were posted on walls and circulated on WhatsApp. The text matched the template provided to the vendors. While the ads didn't identify the employer, two of the three vendor sources said they were for Foxconn smartphone assembly positions.

Impact on Apple's Position in India

Apple has been positioning India as an alternative manufacturing base to China amid tensions between Beijing and Washington. Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's government views Foxconn's iPhone factory and Apple's broader supply chain in India as helping the country move up the economic value chain.

Following Reuters' earlier story, Modi's government ordered federal and state investigations into hiring practices at the Foxconn plant. Labor officials visited the facility in July and interviewed company executives, but neither Modi's government nor state officials in Tamil Nadu made the findings public.

The state government rejected a Reuters request for a copy of the investigation report made under India's Right to Information Act, citing confidentiality. Federal and state officials did not respond to Reuters questions about the outcome of their probes of Foxconn.

Dilip Cherian, a communications consultant and co-founder of Indian public relations firm Perfect Relations, said media scrutiny of Foxconn's employment practices had necessitated changes to job advertising because of the reputational impact on the company and its client, Apple.

However, it remained to be seen whether this move represents a real change of heart or just a cosmetic and appropriately legal response to the fact that they have been called out.

During a visit to India in August, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said married women "greatly contribute to the efforts of what we're doing here." He also met with Modi, who said at the time that the pair discussed the Taiwan-headquartered company's investment plans in India.