Foxconn apologises for pay dispute at China iPhone factory

BEIJING: The company that assembles Apple Inc.’s iPhones apologised on Thursday for a pay dispute that triggered employee protests at a factory where anti-virus controls have slowed production.

Employees complained Foxconn Technology Group changed the terms of wages offered to attract them to the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou.

Foxconn is trying to rebuild the workforce after employees walked out last month over complaints about unsafe conditions.

Videos on social media showed police in white protective suits kicking and clubbing workers during the protest that erupted on Tuesday and lasted into the next day.

Foxconn blamed a “technical error” in the process of adding new employees and said they would be paid what they were promised.

“We apologise for an input error in the computer system and guarantee that the actual pay is the same as agreed and the official recruitment posters,” said a company statement.

It promised to “try its best to actively solve the concerns and reasonable demands of employees.” The dispute comes as the ruling Communist Party tries to contain a surge in coronavirus cases without shutting down factories, as it did in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.

Its tactics include “closedloop management,” or having employees live at their workplaces without outside contact.

Authorities promised last month to reduce economic disruption by cutting quarantine times and making other changes to China’s “zero-covid” strategy, which aims to isolate every case.

Despite that, the infection surge has prompted authorities to suspend access to neighborhoods and factories and to close office buildings, shops and restaurants in parts of many cities.

On Thursday, people in eight districts of Zhengzhou with a total of 6.6 million residents were told to stay home for five days. Daily mass testing was ordered for a “war of annihilation” against the virus.

Apple earlier warned iPhone 14 deliveries would be delayed after employees walked out of the Zhengzhou factory and access to the industrial zone around the facility was suspended following outbreaks.