Someone made serious mistakes around food safety at an Apple factory in India, and now the mega-company is having labor safety issues again.
Reuters reports that up to 100 people were hospitalized at a plant in India’s Tamil Nadu region, where Foxconn employs 17,000 workers.
“Apple has put the southern India factory of Foxconn on probation following protests from workers over subpar food and accommodation conditions, a concern both the firms acknowledged and pledged to improve,” writes Manish Singh at TechCrunch. “The iPhone maker didn’t say how long the probation will last, but an Apple spokesperson in India told TechCrunch that the firm ‘will ensure our strict standards are met before the facility reopens.’”
It’s a safety issue that Apple is taking seriously as it also evaluates the effect of the new Covid omicron wave across America.
Apple has closed eight retail stores due to the spike.
The company is also facing an employment challenge on another front – competitive advantage.
BB reports that Meta, (formerly Facebook), has lured 100 engineers away from Apple in past months, leading the company to offer big stock bonuses in order to stop people from making the move.
Reporting on the context of these giveaways, though, suggests the strategy may not be working.
“Apple … has seen rising defections in the last few months,” writes an author at India.com. “The change in the rules related to work from the office has led to many engineers leaving the company. Apple has been relatively harsher on its employees as compared to other tech giants …Corporate employees of the company are required to work at least three days a week, from the office. On the other hand, hardware engineers are required to attend the office four to five times a week. However, the company has recently said that they will allow the workers to work from home for the foreseeable future. Meta has been relatively easy on the work-from-office norms.”
Keep an eye on APPL for any wild swings.
