Foxconn Asks Recruiters to Omit 'Marital Status, Age Details' from iPhone Job Ads

Apple supplier Foxconn has ordered hiring agents that help recruit iPhone assembly workers in India to remove age, gender and marital criteria as well as manufacturer’s name in job vertisements, according to three people familiar with matter and almost a dozen s reviewed by Reuters. moves follow a Reuters investigation published June 25, which found that Foxconn, excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, though it relaxed practice during high-production periods.

Foxconn, which employs thousands of women at iPhone factory at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, outsources recruitment of assembly-line workers to third-party vendors. se agents scout for and screen candidates, who ultimately are interviewed and selected by Foxconn. For June story, Reuters reviewed job s posted by Foxconn’s Indian hiring vendors between January 2023 and May 2024 which stated that only unmarried women of specified ages were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, contravening Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and Foxconn anti-discrimination policies.

Days after story’s publication, Foxconn HR executives instructed many of Indian vendors to standardise recruitment materials in accordance with templates provided by company, two of three hiring agency sources told Reuters. y also told vendors not to speak to media, se people said. At a meeting in late June, Foxconn HR executives cited media coverage of company’s hiring practices and “warned us not to use Foxconn’s name in any s going forward, and told us our contracts would be terminated if we did,” one agent said. “ instructions for s were: Don’t mention unmarried requirement, don’t mention age, nor male or female eir,” said person, who like or sources spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of backlash from Foxconn.

Foxconn did not respond to Reuters questions about its directives to recruiters, nor wher it h ended restrictions on employment of married women for iPhone assembly roles. Apple declined to comment on similar questions. Both companies have previously said that Foxconn hires married women in India.

Reuters could not independently determine wher Foxconn h begun to hire greater numbers of married women for roles in question. But recent changes to vertising content aligned with recruiters' accounts.

One new Foxconn template reviewed by Reuters described smartphone assembly positions but me no mention of Foxconn, nor age, gender or marital criteria. It listed benefits: “Air conditioned workplace, free transport, canteen facility, free hostel” and a monthly salary of 14,974 rupees, or about $177.

In October, Reuters visited Sriperumbudur and reviewed nine Foxconn vendor s, some in Tamil language, that were posted on walls and circulated on WhatsApp. text matched template provided to vendors. While s didn’t identify employer, two of three vendor sources said y were for Foxconn smartphone assembly positions.

“Foxconn gives us s to run for hiring. We only use those,” a manager at hiring agency Proodle told Reuters.

Reuters visited offices of 12 Foxconn hiring vendors, eight of which declined to discuss its practices.

One vendor, Groveman Global, h vertised in 2023 for unmarried women aged 18 to 32 for mobile manufacturing jobs. This language was absent in three new Groveman s that Reuters reviewed last month.

A representative at Groveman’s office declined to comment on changes.

Apple has been positioning India as an alternative manufacturing base to China amid tensions between Beijing and Washington. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government views Foxconn’s iPhone factory and Apple’s broer supply chain in India as helping country move up economic value chain. Following Reuters' earlier story, Modi’s government ordered federal and state investigations into hiring practices at Foxconn plant.

Labour officials visited facility in July and interviewed company executives, but neir Modi’s government nor state officials in Tamil Nu me findings public. state government rejected a Reuters request for a copy of investigation report me under India’s Right to Information Act, citing confidentiality.

Federal and state officials did not respond to Reuters questions about outcome of ir probes of Foxconn.

Dilip Cherian, a communications consultant and co-founder of Indian public relations firm Perfect Relations, said media scrutiny of Foxconn’s employment practices h necessitated changes to job vertising because of reputational impact on company and its client, Apple. Still, it remained to be seen “wher this move represents a real change of heart or just a cosmetic and appropriately legal response to fact that y have been called out,” ded Cherian, who told Reuters he does not work with Apple or Foxconn.

During a visit to India in August, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said married women “greatly contribute to efforts of what we’re doing here.” He also met with Modi, who said on X at time that pair discussed Taiwan-hequartered company’s investment plans in India.