Wistron plant issue: Apple undertakes detailed investigation
New Delhi, Dec 14: Tech giant Apple on Monday said it is undertaking a detailed investigation following the violent incident at its supplier Wistron's Narasapura facility in Karnataka last week.
A section of workers at Wistron Corporation's manufacturing facility in Narasapura Industrial Area in Kolar district near Bengaluru went on a rampage on Saturday over non-payment of their wages.
Taiwan-headquartered Wistron Corporation has said it suffered losses worth Rs 437.40 crore in the incident.
"Apple is dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with dignity and respect. We have teams on the ground and immediately launched a detailed investigation at Wistron's Narasapura facility in India. We are also dispatching additional Apple team members and auditors to the facility," Apple said in an emailed statement.
Its teams are in close touch with the local authorities and it is offering full support to their investigation, it added.
The Cupertino-based company has a strict supplier code of conduct and follows up on any reports of violations.
In 2019, it interviewed more than 52,000 supplier employees as part of its supplier assessments.
Apple, in its supplier code of conduct, states that suppliers must meet all legal requirements relating to wages and benefits, including paying accurate wages in a timely manner.
"In addition, the use of wage deductions as a form of disciplinary measure is prohibited. All use of temporary and outsourced labour shall be within the limits of the local law," it adds.
In November, Apple Inc had suspended new business with one of its suppliers Pegatron Corp after labour violations were reported.
Wistron said a large number of employees allegedly carried out arson, loot and violence at its Narasapura manufacturing plant, damaging the building and vehicles, and damaged costly equipment including machines and computers. The police have so far arrested 149 people and detained a few others.
Besides the iPhone, Wistron also manufactures IT products for Lenovo and Microsoft, among others.
Wistron is one of the 16 entities to have received approval for incentives under the government's production linked incentive plan. Currently, iPhone XR and iPhone 11 are being assembled by Foxconn in Chennai, and iPhone 7 by Wistron in Bengaluru. The Kolar facility assembles the latest version of the iPhone SE.
Prabhu Ram, Head (Industry Intelligence Group) at CMR, said the Wistron factory issue will have an almost negligible impact on the iPhone SE 2020 performance going forward.
"This is primarily because there is enough iPhone SE 2020 inventory available in the market. It is pertinent to note that the iPhone SE 2020, along with the iPhone 11 contributed to as much as 70 per cent of Apple's iPhone shipments in Q3 2020," he added.
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Teachers start relay hunger strike to protest job loss, police action
Kolkata (PTI): A section of teachers who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment which held that the whole appointment process was tainted, on Thursday began a relay hunger strike outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) office in protest over the issue.
Joining the protesters, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay who is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, blamed the state administration and its wings for their plight.
The teachers and other staff who lost their jobs said that they were also protesting police action against their compatriots at the district inspector (DI) of schools' office at Kasba in south Kolkata on Wednesday.
"We started a relay hunger strike agitation with one teacher at the beginning and will soon chalk out further programme to protest the issue," one of the protesters told reporters outside the SSC office at Salt Lake here.
The agitating teachers have been holding a sit-in outside the SSC office building 'Acharya Sadan' since Wednesday night to protest the loss of jobs and police action against their compatriots.
The protesters alleged they were subjected to baton-charge and were even kicked and shoved around by law enforcement personnel during their agitation outside the DI office, situated beside Kasba police station of the Kolkata Police.
Noting that the police have lodged cases against the protesting teachers over Wednesday's protest at Kasba, Gangopadhyay said that this should not have been done.
"Cases have been lodged against innocent teachers who lost their jobs for the illegal acts of others," the BJP MP told reporters.
Maintaining that he had not gone to meet Education Minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday in protest against the police action, he said that the BJP leadership was with him in his decision.
Gangopadhyay said that he, along with former Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly, came to the protest site at Acharya Sadan to express solidarity with the teachers and other staff who lost their jobs.
Gangopadhyay, as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, had ordered a CBI investigation in November 2021 into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.
He had also ordered the termination of more than 25,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-run and -aided schools after finding irregularities in the process.
This order was upheld by a division bench of the high court and thereafter by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through a recruitment drive by SSC in 2016, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".
Those who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the SSC to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and some others, who held positions in the state's SSC when the irregularities in the recruitment process took place.
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