Bengaluru Apple supplier Wistron fired the vice president of its operations in India on Saturday and acknowledged that it could not cope with expansion plans, it violated several laws.
“This is a new facility and we recognize that we made mistakes as we expanded. Some of the processes we put in place to manage labor agencies and payments need to be strengthened and updated. We are taking immediate action to correct this, including disciplinary action. We are removing to the vice president who oversees our business in India, “Wistron said in a statement.
The statement comes a week after violence broke out at the Taiwanese manufacturing company’s Narasapura plant in Kolar, about 60 km from Bangalore.
Wistron also acknowledged that wages had not been paid to its contract workers, which several reports commissioned by the state government have also found. Unpaid wages, inexplicable pay cuts and working hours, among other reasons, are said to have fueled anger among the workforce.
The Wistron incident has made international news and was looped over on television channels globally, which has the potential to affect the investment climate of the country and its flagship ‘Make in India’ campaign.
The company said it was also improving processes and restructuring its teams to prevent such incidents from recurring.
“Since the unfortunate events at our Narasapura facility, we have been investigating and have found that some workers were not paid correctly or on time. We deeply regret this and apologize to all of our workers,” the statement said.
The role of six staffing firms that provided contract workers to Wistron is under scrutiny for allegedly diverting most of the wages and withholding other fees.
The police are on the lookout for almost 7,000 unidentified people allegedly involved in the violence.
Wistron said he has suffered losses amounting to around ₹52 crore. The company initially stated that it had incurred losses of around ₹437 crore, including ₹412 million rupees in looting of iPhones, laptops and other machinery.
The company has around 8,500 contract workers and 1,500 permanent employees. State government reports have noted violations in expanding the workforce without the necessary approvals or infrastructure.
The government also found that the human resources department did not have “staff with a solid understanding of labor laws.”
A government report also said that the change in working hours from eight to 12 hours was not properly communicated to workers or paid over time.
Despite the violations, the state government led by BSYediyurappa has secured full support to reopen the plant in the next 10-15 days.
The center has also requested a report from the state government.
The company said it had established an employee assistance program and 24-hour complaint hotline in multiple languages to ensure that all employee concerns are expressed anonymously.
“We are deeply committed to our business and our employees in India. We are diligently working on corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again,” the company said in a statement.
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