It’s been a week since an iPhone manufacturing factory in India had to face the anger of its own workers. The workers broke through the doors and equipment was obliterated, thousands of iPhones were taken away and the company lost around $60 million (437 crore Indian rupees).
One of Apple’s outsourced labor goes to a Taiwan-based manufacturing company named Wistron which has one of its plant in India’s Narsapura which is situated in the state of Karnataka.
The reason why the workers retaliated
The company had hired workers at a salary of $284 a month – which is already $1.31 per hour but then the company declined to pay the promised amount and eventually reduced it to $162 per month and even $108 per month for some employees. In Indian currency, it would be said that the promised salary was 21000 rupees but the company only paid them 12000 and even 8000 to many employees.
Some workers even got 500 rupees (6.77 dollars) as their monthly salary. One of the workers said to The Times of India:
“While an engineering graduate was promised Rs 21,000 per month, his/her salary had reduced to Rs 16,000 and, subsequently, to Rs 12,000 in the recent months. Non-engineering graduates’ monthly salary had reduced to Rs 8,000. The salary amount being credited to our accounts have been reducing and it was frustrating to see this. Some employees got as low as Rs 500 in their bank accounts as their monthly salary.”
The government has revoked labour laws in most places
During the pandemic, the Indian government has already revoked labour laws – meaning that the companies can force employees to work extended hours without getting paid, and the companies can cut the pay, the companies are also not being held responsible for holding COVID safety measures and they are not liable if the workers died in any kind of work-related incident or after getting COVID at work.
However, the Indian media defines it as the “ease of doing business” – the said “ease” comes at the cost of workers being able to afford food and rent. Workers are barely able to survive while the corporations have made hay even in the pandemic while claiming that they are running in losses.
And now a third party is getting blamed
The anger of the workers finally burst through, and the fact that they were struggling to make ends meet with reduced payment led to a desperate backlash at the company. Thousands of iPhones were taken away and many equipments got broken.
Senior officials of the company also suffered some attacks due to their negligence towards the salary issues and poverty of the workers.
Further reports have shown that the government and the company both have washed their hands off the issue – blaming it on a third party contractor who hired the workers for Wistron.
Featured Image Courtesy: NewZone