An Indian labor office’s preliminary investigation into violence last weekend at a factory run by Wistron Corp (緯創) found several labor law breaches by the Taiwanese supplier of Apple Inc and its vendors, a report reviewed by Reuters said.
Angry workers complaining about the nonpayment of wages for months smashed equipment and iPhones on Saturday last week at the Wistron plant, about 50km from the technology hub Bengaluru, forcing it to shut the site.
An audit of the factory, hours after the rampage, found “several labour law violations,” the labor department in Karnataka state’s Kolar District, where the factory is located, said in its report.
Photo: AFP
Apple, which is conducting its own audit to investigate whether Wistron breached its supplier guidelines, did not respond to a request for comment.
The labor office said that Wistron did not maintain proper employment and appointment details of its employees, who worked 12-hour shifts at the Kolar plant and were not paid for overtime.
The company did not maintain salary and attendance records as required by law, and contract workers were unhappy about nonpayment of wages for extra hours worked, the office said, adding that Wistron failed to submit the records on demand.
The report also named three of Wistron’s contract employment providers — Creative Engineers, Quess Corp and Adecco India — for exceeding hiring quotas permitted under government regulations.
The inspection also found that a glitch in an attendance machine or software had led to worker complaints of not getting full wages owed to them.
“This was brought to the notice of the management, and this was not addressed,” the office said.
The investigation, though initial, confirmed the grievances of workers at the plant, half a dozen of whom were interviewed by Reuters.
The auditors asked Wistron to submit to the labor office some documents within three days.
It was not clear if Wistron had complied with the request.
The Karnataka state government earlier this week said that it would help Wistron restart operations and address workers’ concerns.
It also did not comment on the findings of the report.
Trade unions have criticized the state government for “going soft” on the company and failing to empathize with employees who worked in “sweatshop-like conditions.”
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