- Wistron violated several labour laws resulting in the shutdown
- Government of Karnataka to help the firm to restart
We had previously reported about the ‘Wistron violence’ and how it can affect the manufacturing of iPhone in India. The recent reports confirm that the factory run by the Taiwanese Apple supplier was violating several regulations resulting in disputes by the workers.
What Are The Disputes?
An audit conducted by the labour department of Karnataka state’s Kolar district revealed several violations of the labour law. The examination was done at the factory after the violence caused last week.
Last Saturday, the workers of Wistron protested against the non-payment of wages by breaking factory equipment and iPhone prototypes causing millions of dollars of damage. The riot resulted in shutting down of the Wistron plant.
Apple itself is scrutinising the situation at Wistron to know if the firm violated any supplier guidelines or not.
Why Were The Workers Enraged?
Employees at Wistron who were working for 12 hours a day were not paid for the overtime. Apparently, Wistron did not maintain salary and attendance records since the firm did not turn in the records to the labour office.
The employees were infuriated because of inappropriate payment considering the numbers of hours they were working. Besides negligence in maintaining a proper employee record is strictly against the law which went against Wistron.
The names of three of Wistron’s manpower providers, Creative Engineers, Quess, and Adecco India, were also mentioned in the report for violating the government’s hiring quotas.
The Karnataka government has announced that it will help Wistron to set up their operations again. The government has also assured that it will resolve the workers’ distress. However, the trade union has denounced this decision of the government for being too lenient with the company and not considering the hardships that the workers may have gone through.
The whole incident at Kolar unit of Wistron’s has hampered the image of Apple in a country which is one of the biggest potential markets.
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