New Delhi: Apple iPhone supplier Foxconn's unit on the outskirts of Chennai will stay shut this week after protests broke out following a food poisoning incident, the media has reported. Five days of holidays have been declared at the Foxconn unit, according to the Superintendent of Police in Kancheepuram, said a report by news agency Reuters.
Several workers of Foxconn Technology India Pvt Ltd were arrested and later released for staging a protest on a key Chennai-Bengaluru highway in a protest against food poisoning at a Foxconn unit.
Foxconn is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer that manufactures for Apple and over 150 employees at its production unit were hospitalised following an incident of food poisoning at its dormitories, where most of its employees live.
The food poisoning incident took place at Foxconn’s dormitories in Sriperumbudur, on the outskirts of Chennai, where more than 150 of its workers were hospitalised and 256 others were treated as out-patients. According to media reports, there was an outbreak of an acute diarrhoeal disease at Foxconn's hostel that gave way to the hospitalisation of the workers.
Apple is yet to come out with a statement. ABP Live has reached the company for a comment.
It was not immediately clear if production at the unit was disrupted by the protests sparked by last week's food poisoning incident that led to 150 employees being admitted to hospital, according to a report by news agency Reuters. Another report suggests that except for one worker, all others have been discharged from the hospital following the food poisoning incident.