Discriminatory job ads for iPhone workers ended after Reuters report; Apple didn’t comment

Reuters found discriminatory job ads for iPhone workers in India, with recruitment leaflets stating that women applying for positions with Foxconn must be unmarried and aged 18 to 32.

The offending ads have been withdrawn following the launch of state and federal investigations into Foxconn’s hiring practices by the Indian government, but neither Foxconn nor Apple has yet offered any explanation for the original requirements …

India is key to Apple’s attempts to reduce its dependence on China as a manufacturing center, and has quickly become the company’s second-largest base for iPhone assembly. Foxconn is Apple’s largest manufacturing partner.

Reuters reviewed multiple ads for roles in Foxconn’s iPhone assembly lines, and found that some recruitment agencies were specifying that female workers had to be both young and unmarried.

This was in direct contradiction of the published anti-discrimination policies of both Apple and Foxconn. Neither company responded to a request for comment.

Foxconn did not respond to Reuters questions about its directives to recruiters, nor whether it had ended restrictions on the employment of married women for iPhone assembly roles. Apple declined to comment on similar questions. Both companies have previously said that Foxconn hires married women in India.

The report says that Foxconn responded by issuing template ads which must be used by recruiters.

Apple supplier Foxconn has ordered the hiring agents that help recruit iPhone assembly workers in India to remove age, gender and marital criteria as well as the manufacturer’s name in job advertisements, according to three people familiar with the matter and almost a dozen ads reviewed by Reuters […]

Days after the story’s publication, Foxconn HR executives instructed many of the Indian vendors to standardize recruitment materials in accordance with templates provided by the company, two of the three hiring agency sources told Reuters. They also told the vendors not to speak to the media, these people said.

At a meeting in late June, Foxconn HR executives cited media coverage of the company’s hiring practices and “warned us not to use Foxconn’s name in any ads going forward, and told us our contracts would be terminated if we did,” one agent said.

Reuters cites a PR expert stating it is unclear whether the actual discriminatory hiring has been ended, or only the ads.

Dilip Cherian, a communications consultant and co-founder of Indian public relations firm Perfect Relations, said media scrutiny of Foxconn’s employment practices had necessitated changes to job advertising because of the reputational impact on the company and its client, Apple.

Still, it remained to be seen “whether this move represents a real change of heart or just a cosmetic and appropriately legal response to the fact that they have been called out,” added Cherian.

Photo by Rajeev Chanda on Unsplash