On 12 December, unrest broke out at Wistron’s iPhone factory in the Indian city of Narsapura, after hundreds of employees complained about unreasonable working conditions and low wages.
The riots saw property damage estimated at $7m, or £5m. You can see footage of the incident in the following Twitter post from TOI Bengaluru, a local account run by the Times of India:
Karnataka: #Violence at iPhone production plant run by Taiwan-based #Wistron Corp at Narasapura (in Kolar district) near #Bengaluru.
Employees allege they have not been paid properly. pic.twitter.com/GKbeFeyRKc
— TOI Bengaluru (@TOIBengaluru)
December 12, 2020
Authorities in the state of Karnataka investigated the incident and concluded that underpaid wages and substandard working conditions were the cause. Legal experts argued that Apple had ultimate responsibility, but the company in turn blamed Wistron, which owns the factory.
Now Reuters reports that production will soon resume, as Wistron has promised to remedy the shortcomings. However, Apple has pledged to monitor the situation to ensure that similar events do not happen again.
In the past, Apple has also put pressure on Pegatron, another partner alleged to have imposed unreasonable working conditions on its employees. In that case, the issue was long working days for students.
Conditions in Apple’s supply chain have long been a source of disquiet. The company, to its credit, has committed to improving matters, and publishes a Supplier Responsibility Progress Report every year. Yet there remain concerns over its approach to forced labour, particularly after the firm recently employed lobbyists to push back on proposed regulations.
This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation by David Price.
