Karnataka Govt Report Finds Major Labour Law Violations in Violence-Hit Wistron Plant

New Delhi: There’s a lot more behind the ‘worker violence’ on December 12 that erupted in Wistron Corporation’s iPhone manufacturing plant in Naraspura in Kolar district, Karnataka, over alleged delayed payment of salaries, with a Karnataka government report has revealed big time labour law violations.

In a damning inspection report by the Karnataka government’s Department of Factories, Boilers, Industrial Safety & Health, dated December 13, 2020 (a day after the violence), the team which went there to assess the damage and find the cause of the labour unrest, found large-scale labour violations in the Apple iPhone manufacturing plant.

“The practices in place with regard to payment of wages and overtime work, are not in line with the provisions of law,” said the report, adding that “there is a wide gap between the practices in the factory to the statutory stipulations under the law pertaining to the period of work.”

Read Also: Violence Erupts in Wistron’s iPhone Plant in Karnataka Over ‘Delayed Salary Payments’

Not only that, the report points out that the Wistron scaled up the licensed manpower capacity at its Narasapura plant from 5,000 to 10,500 in a short time without permission.

Also, work hours were increased to 12 hours from eight, once again without permission.

“The factory has adopted 2 shift of 12 hours per day system from 4th October 2020, with three breaks of half an hour each in each shift,” said the report.

The report also said that the “change in working hours of the factory from 8 hours shift to 12 hours shift on continuous basis has not been brought to the knowledge of the department.”

The three-member inspection team that visited the plant also found, after verification with supervisors of contract agencies, also found a difference in the amount paid to contract workers, which had been pointed out to the Human Resource department as well as contractors.

“The HR team had assured that the same would be rectified and the difference payment would be paid along with the next month salary. However, this difference was not paid along with the salary for the month of November 2020,” the report added.

In fact, “the salary of the housekeeping contract workers are not paid till date, and they are required to work for 12 hours a day for six days a week, and are being paid the same salary which they were being paid when they were working for 8 hours a day,” it said.

Also, there is violation of the norms under the Factories Act. “The necessary exemptions under the Factories Act 1948 have not been taken to carry out overtime work from the workers and hence the working hours of the factory from 6am to 6pm and from 6pm to 6am is in violation of the provisions of Section 51 and 54 of the Factories Act, 1948,” it said.

Violations of norms were also noted with regard to engaging women workers to do overtime work as there is no provision under the law to engage women on overtime work.

While there has been no FIR against the company management, the local police has filed an FIR against 7,000 people, including 5,000 unnamed contract workers.

The Taiwan-headquartered company broke its silence only a day after  the violence, first claiming losses of Rs 437 crore and then quickly downscaling it to Rs 26 crore, what it was silent on was the rampant labour law violations in the plant located near Bangalore.

Meanwhile, according to a report in the Mint, Apple Inc., for whom Wistron produced the iPhone-SE and iPhone-7 at this plant, “has initiated a probe to determine if its manufacturing partner did indeed provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity, respect, act fairly and ethically as part of its supplier code of conduct policy.”

The role of six contractors is also being investigated.