Wistron admitted that he made mistakes and that some of the processes in place to manage labor agencies and payments need to be strengthened.
A week after several employees vandalized Wistron Corp’s iPhone facility in Kolar, Karnataka, Wistron admitted that some workers were not paid properly and apologized to them. He said his investigation of the incident revealed that some workers were not paid correctly or on time. “We deeply regret this and we apologize to all of our workers,” the company said in a statement.
Wistron, in a statement on Saturday, admitted that it made mistakes expanding this new facility and that some of the processes it put in place to manage labor agencies and payments need to be strengthened and updated.
As a result of the disciplinary action, Vincent Lee, Vice President (Innovation Business Group) of Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India has been dismissed following the violence at the plant. The company added that it is improving processes and restructuring its teams to ensure these problems do not recur.
It has also established a 24-hour complaint hotline in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English to ensure that all workers can voice their concerns anonymously.
“Our top priority is to make sure all workers receive full compensation right away and we are working hard to achieve that. We have established an employee assistance program for facility workers … We are deeply committed to our business and employees in India. We are working diligently on corrective actions to ensure this does not happen again, ”added Wistron.
Read: Karnataka Department of Labor finds Wistron did not record a deduction in workers’ pay
Wistron’s statement comes a day after Karnataka submitted a report to the Union Department of Labor, where the state government said there was a malfunction in the system that records employee attendance and that Wistron had not addressed the problem after installing new systems after March 2020.
The report also noted that the riots were due to the increase in working hours from eight to 12 hours a day, and that technical malfunctions in the assistance system caused workers’ wages to be discounted even though they arrived to work.
The workers TNM spoke to also echoed the same thing, also saying that they were not being paid for the overtime they worked and that their regular pay would also be late.
Apart from this, the state Department of Labor also found several labor law violations by the company. The department’s investigation suggested that the contracting companies had also violated regulations related to hiring. Contracting companies that worked with Wistron included Quess Corp, Adecco India, and Creative Engineers.
Read also: K’taka government submits report on Wistron violence to Center and blames ‘overtime’ for riots
Violence at Wistron iPhone plant: workers say months of pent-up anger behind blast
Losses from Wistron’s violence were drastically reduced from Rs 437 cr to Rs 52 cr. This is why
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