'We hire regardless of...': Foxconn Chief refutes allegations of employment discrimination

After New Delhi ordered investigations following a news agency Reuters report that claimed Foxconn rejects married women from iPhone assembly jobs, Young Liu, the Chief of the Apple Suppliers company, said that the company hires regardless of gender, and added that women make up a big part of the workforce. 

Punlished in June, the Reuters investigation found that Foxconn systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts, which sparked TV debates and controversies around the same. 

"We hire regardless of gender, but women make up a big part of our workforce", said the Foxconn Chief during the opening ceremony for a hostel complex for its workers near Chennai in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, i.e., August 17. Notably, this was his first remarks since the Reuters investigation. 

According to a report by India TV, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the Tamil Nadu government to provide a detailed report on it, followed by his labour officials visiting the factory to question the executives. 

The Apple suppliers told labour officials its main India iPhone factory employs 41,281 people, including 33,360 women. Of these women, some 2,750, or about 8 per cent, were married, the report further said. 

It is worth mentioning that in the recent years, Foxconn has expanded in India and it makes iPhones and other products for different smartphone brands. Headquartered in Taiwan, Foxconn is the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. The firm is also one of the largest employers worldwide. 

Foxconn manufactures products for major American, Chinese, Canadian and Japanese companies which primarily include -- Apple, Blackberry, Kindle etc. The company is planning on setting up an battery energy storage unit in India, said Chief Liu. 

"We are also waiting to put our 3+3 future industry in India. I have been talking to the minister for industries here about how can we collaborate on BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) in Tamil Nadu...," India TV has quoted Liu as saying.