Taiwan-headquartered Wistron Corporation has said that it has suffered losses of Rs 437.40 crores in the violence in its facility. The labour department has asked for more documents to investigate the matter and the company has sought one week’s time to revert.
The company official in his complaint has also said that 5,000 contract labourers and about 2,000 unknown culprits carried out the vandalism at the facility.
Saturday’s violence at Wistron’s Kolar plant, where it assembles iPhones, has caused losses amounting to an estimated Rs 437 crore, the company stated in its complaint to the police and the labour department.
The losses are primarily due to the theft of thousands of iPhones, allegedly looted from the unit during the violence, and damage caused to Wistron’s assembly line and factory equipment, the complaint said. Condemning the two-hour violence, Karnataka labour minister Shivaram Hebbar said the damages caused to the company were unacceptable.
According to the government, the dispute between Wistron and the contract labourers has been going on for three months. Hebbar said Wistron had contracted six subsidiary companies to hire 8,900 people for its Kolar unit.
“Besides, the company had 1,200 permanent employees,” he added. Industries minister Jagadish Shettar said the violence was, perhaps, fueled by miscommunication between Wistron, the contractors and the employees.
“What we hear is that the company had made payments to the labour contractors, who delayed payments to the employees. This is being verified,” he said. Hebbar said the labour department has issued notices to Wistron, asking the firm to pay the dues in three days.
Labour Commissioner Akram Pasha has said, “Only the police can investigate why this happened. We saw the data and there was only four days’ delay in salary distribution. Many claimed it was for several months but it wasn’t there in the report.”
There were reports of Wistron increasing the labour strength from 5,000 to over 10,000 recently. To this, the labour commissioner said, “It might not be true as the company has followed the due process and trained all its labours before taking them into the factory.”
“The accident was caused by unknown persons bursting in and causing damage to the plant with unclear intentions. The company always abides by the law, and fully supports and is cooperating with relevant authorities and police investigations,” the company said in a statement to the Taipei Stock Exchange.
The four-day alleged delay in salary payment was caused due to a bug in the software system. Earlier there was biometric attendance and wages were paid on the days present. But post-October 2020, the company moved to a software which seemed to have developed a bug in registering the attendance.
Around 150 people have so far been arrested over the arson and vandalism at the iPhone manufacturing unit in Kolar on Saturday. All of them have been sent to judicial custody and have been lodged at different prisons in Kolar. A total of four FIRs have been registered by Kolar Police.
The large group of employees vandalised the manufacturing unit where the company produces iPhone for Apple and IT products for others. They damaged the building, costly equipment and machines, including computers. Two battery-powered buggies were set on fire, six vehicles were damaged and glass windows and doors of the facility were smashed by iron rod-wielding workers, according to a report.
In its complaint at the Vemagal police station, company executive TD Prashanth has stated that office equipment, mobile phones, production machinery and related gadgets worth Rs 412.5 crore was lost.
Infrastructure worth Rs 10 crore, Rs 60 lakh worth cars and golf carts, smartphones and other gadgets worth Rs 1.5 crore were among those which suffered damage, stolen or lost.
Apple’s supplier guidelines mandate third-party staffing agencies to pay workers and provide them other benefits as per rules and on time, the Economic Times said, adding it will examine if there was any disparity in wages agreed and paid to the staff.
Apple is probing if its Taiwanese contractor Wistron flouted supplier guidelines at a violence-hit iPhone manufacturing facility near Bengaluru, the Economic Times said, citing people familiar with the development.
Over the weekend, several media reports said workers upset about working hours and payments trashed a Wistron factory and about a 100 people were detained.
Taiwan-based iPhone maker Wistron is deliberating whether it should continue with its expansion plans in India, sources said, after some workers ransacked its Karnataka facility, which company insiders have called a planned conspiracy to rob the plant.
The firm, which manufactures iPhones and other IoT products at the facility located in the Kolar district, had plans to hire up to 25,000 employees by the end of next year.
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