Foxconn tells India agents to remove marital, age criteria in i Phone job ads

Appb supplier Foxconn has ordered the hiring agents that help recruit i Phone assembly workers in India to remove age, gender and marital criteria, as well as the manufacturer's name, in job advertisements, according to three people familiar with the matter and almost a dozen ads reviewed by Reuters.

The moves follow a Reuters investigation published on June 25, which found that Foxconn excluded married women from jobs at its main India i Phone assembly plant, though it relaxed the practice during high-production periods.

Foxconn, which employs thousands of women at the i Phone factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, outsources recruitment of assembly line workers to third-party vendors. These agents scout for and screen candidates, who ultimately are interviewed and selected by Foxconn.

For the story in June, Reuters reviewed job ads posted by Foxconn's Indian hiring vendors between Ianuary 2023 and May 2024, which stated that only unmarried women of specified ages were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, contravening Apple and Foxconn anti-discrimination policies.

Days after the story's publication, Foxconn human resources (HR) executives instructed many of the Indian vendors to standardise recruitment materials in accordance with templates provided by the company, two of the three hiring agency sources said. They also told the vendors not to speak to the media, these people added.

At a meeting in late June, Foxconn HR executives cited media coverage of the company's hiring practices and "warned us not to use Foxconn's name in any ads going forward, and told us our contracts would be terminated if we did", one agent said.