Hiring spree to fill vacancies led to mass protests at Zhengzhou factory after pay delays
Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group is rolling a string of new incentives worth up to thousands of yuan in an attempt to win back employees who departed its major iPhone factory.
Foxconn announced on its WeChat account that employees will be getting an additional 30 yuan an hour on top of their regular wages from December to January, as well as an additional 500 yuan of returnee bonus, Bloomberg reported.
The manufacturer is also offering an additional 3,000 yuan to employees who will stay for 30 days, according to a report from South China Morning Post (SCMP), which added that another 3,000 will be provided if employees stayed for at least 26 days in the "closed loop" compound for at least 26 days in December.
A massive 6,000 yuan also awaits employees who will stay for another 23 days in January, according to the SCMP, in a bonus the company called its Lunar New Year "gift package."
Massive protests
The incentives are targeted at employees who left the manufacturer's iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, Henan province, between Oct. 1 and Nov. 10 due to fears stemming from COVID-19, according to reports.
The assembly facility, which houses around 200,000 workers, went on a hiring spree to fill in the vacancies left the departed employees. However, this led to massive protests against Foxconn by the fresh hires following reports that their bonus payments would be delayed and that some are sharing dormitories with COVID-positive employees, Reuters reported.
Foxconn went on to say that there was a "technical error" in their system, before apologizing for the mishap.
"Our team has been looking into the matter and discovered a technical error occurred during the onboarding process," Foxconn said. "We apologize for an input error in the computer system and guarantee that the actual pay is the same as agreed and the official recruitment posters."
The manufacturer also offered to pay the fresh hires 10,000 yuan so they can leave the factory, the SCMP reported, a move that attempted to quell the employee unrest that rocked the company.
The build-up of recent events at Foxconn prompted delays in the deliveries of Apple's latest iPhone high-end models, affecting even the company's Black Friday sales after Thanksgiving.
