Foxconn chairman defended their hiring practices on Saturday saying that the company hired people regardless of their gender and emphasised upon the contribution that Indian married women had made to the company. Young Liu, the chairman of the Taiwanese iPhone contract manufacturer spoke at the opening ceremony of its women-only residential complex near Chennai after a Reuters report recently alleged that the company rejected married women from their assembly jobs.
Published in June, the report stated that Foxconn was systematically refusing to hire married women saying they had more household responsibilities. The report led to an investigation being ordered by New Delhi into the factory.
Foxconn refuted to the claims retorting that 25 percent of their new hires were married women and that their Tamil Nadu plant was the biggest for women employment in the country.
Liu added that hiring by the company in India was only rising upwards.
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The new complex, built by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT), was inaugurated by the state CM MK Stalin. The building is expected to house more than 18, 000 female employees from the company to make commute to the factory easier, Liu noted.
Foxconn has been expanding in India to manufacture iPhones and products for other smartphone brands while also planning to move to making chips and AirPods.