National Human Rights Commission faults probe of Foxconn hiring, orders new inquiry

NHRC criticizes Foxconn for discrimination against married women in iPhone assembly jobs, orders re-examination of hiring practices.

National Human Rights Commission has admonished labour officials for failure to adequately investigate evidence of employment discrimination at Foxconn, which makes Apple iPhones, and told them to re-examine the matter, documents show.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in June ordered central and Tamil Nadu state officials to probe Foxconn's hiring practices, after a Reuters investigation found the manufacturer excluded married women from iPhone assembly jobs at its southern India plant. Foxconn relaxed the ban during high-production periods, Reuters found.

The iPhone factory is a flagship foreign investment in India, crucial to Apple and Foxconn's plans to grow manufacturing in the country, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aim of rivaling China in electronics production. Labour officials visited the Foxconn plant in July and questioned executives about employment practices, but did not make their findings public.

Reuters this month reviewed NHRC case files related to the probe after the news agency sought the records under Right to Information laws. The details have not been previously reported.

An undated NHRC case status document shows Tamil Nadu labour officials told the commission on July 5 that 6.7% of the 33,360 women working at the Foxconn plant were married, without specifying whether they were on the assembly line. They said women employed at the factory came from six districts, "which makes it clear that a large number of female employees have been hired by the company ... without any discrimination."

The investigators told the commission that they had interviewed 21 married women at the factory, who said they faced no discrimination over wages and promotions, according to the document.

In response, the NHRC told the labour officials in November that they did not appear to have scrutinized Foxconn hiring documents, nor addressed the core issue of discrimination against married women in recruitment. The officials had relied on current employees' testimony and "filed their reports in a routine/casual manner," according to the case details.