India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has reprimanded labor officials for their failure to thoroughly investigate allegations of employment discrimination at Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple iPhones, and has directed them to re-examine the issue, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.
The NHRC's intervention followed a Reuters investigation that uncovered evidence of Foxconn barring married women from assembly line jobs at its southern India plant, a policy allegedly relaxed only during high-production periods. Foxconn's iPhone factory, a critical component of Apple's and Foxconn's expansion plans in India, is also a flagship project under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to position India as a global electronics manufacturing hub, rivaling China.
In response to the Reuters findings, the NHRC ordered federal and Tamil Nadu state labor officials in June 2024 to investigate Foxconn’s hiring practices. However, the initial investigations, conducted in July, did not yield conclusive findings. Tamil Nadu labor officials reported that 6.7% of the 33,360 women employed at the Foxconn plant were married but did not clarify if they worked on the assembly line. Federal investigators, meanwhile, interviewed 21 married women, who denied facing discrimination in wages or promotions.
The NHRC, dissatisfied with these findings, criticized labor officials for failing to scrutinize hiring records or address whether married women had been systematically excluded during recruitment. The commission described the officials' approach as "routine/casual" and said the investigations failed to address the "core issue" of potential discrimination against married women.
On November 19, 2024, the NHRC instructed government officials to conduct a thorough investigation and submit their findings within four weeks. The watchdog emphasized that the mere presence of married women in the workforce was not sufficient to dismiss allegations of discrimination during recruitment.
Under India’s Equal Remuneration Act, recruitment discrimination based on gender or marital status is prohibited. Foxconn and Apple, which have both previously stated that Foxconn hires married women in India, did not respond to Reuters' inquiries on the NHRC's assessment.
Reuters' investigation revealed that between January 2023 and May 2024, recruitment advertisements from vendors hiring for Foxconn’s smartphone assembly roles specified that only unmarried women within certain age brackets were eligible. Such practices violate the anti-discrimination policies of both Apple and Foxconn. In November 2024, following the Reuters report, Foxconn instructed recruiters to eliminate age, gender, and marital status criteria from job advertisements.
This is not the first time the NHRC has scrutinized labor conditions at prominent companies. In 2023, it ordered an investigation into reports of harsh working conditions at an Amazon warehouse, prompting the company to take corrective measures.
As of January 2025, the NHRC has declined to provide further updates on the Foxconn case, citing the ongoing investigation. The outcome of the re-investigation is expected to have significant implications for labor practices in India, particularly in the electronics manufacturing sector, which is central to the country’s industrial growth strategy.
- Reuters