This Is How iPhone Maker Foxconn Is Wooing Back Workers Who Fled Zhengzhou Plant

iPhone maker Foxconn is offering what it calls a "pre-hiring" subsidy to migrant workers who fled Foxconn's biggest manufacturing facility in Zhenzhou due to Covid-19-induced lockdown.

The Foxconn workers willing to return to the facility will be provided with a transportation facility once the lockdown in the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone is lifted.

iPhone maker Foxconn is offering what it calls a "pre-hiring" subsidy to migrant workers who fled Foxconn's biggest manufacturing facility in Zhenzhou in China due to strict measures and lockdown in the wake of coronavirus. Foxconn Zhengzhou factory is offering migrant workers a one-off $70 subsidy if they agree to return to work, in a bid to minimise the impact on the output of iPhone production, the media has reported.

A notice posted on Monday by the Foxconn Zhengzhou unit responsible for iPhone production said the “care and love” subsidy was a “pre-hiring” offer as workers would not be able to return to the compound until the seven-day lockdown imposed by local authorities was lifted on Wednesday this week, says a report by South China Morning Post.

The migrant workers employed with the Foxconn Zhengzhou plant and who had fled the facility between October 10 to November 5 have been asked to register at local labour agencies if they are willing to return, the report added. The workers willing to return to the facility will be provided with a transportation facility once the lockdown in the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone, where Foxconn is located, is lifted.

Earlier last week, videos surfaced on Chinese social media sites that showed several Chinese migrant workers scaling a fence outside a Foxconn plant, which manufactures Apple iPhones. The videos showed workers fleeing China's largest iPhone plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou, amid a lockdown triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus, according to a report by news agency ANI.

Zhengzhou city is home to about 10 million people and is currently under partial lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak, a report claimed. 

Meanwhile, according to news agency Reuters which cited a source, iPhone supplier Foxconn’s Covid-19 woes at its vast iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou city could cut the unit's November iPhone shipments by up to 30 per cent. In order to meet demand, Foxconn is, however, working to boost iPhone production at its facility in the southern city of Shenzhen, the Reuters report added citing the source.