Foxconn offering workers incentives as it tries to fulfill iPhone shipments

Iphone Factory China
Iphone Factory China (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Foxconn has started offering workers incentives to try and encourage employees to come back to work.
  • It is laying on free meals, accommodation, and shuttle-buses to ease labor shortages.
  • It has also significantly increased its pay bonus for returning and newly-hired employees.

Foxconn is deploying a series of incentives for workers as it seeks to address labor shortages caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China.

As reported by DigiTimes, the iPhone-maker has laid on free meals, accommodation, and shuttle-buses as it seeks to encourage employees to come back to work. According to the report:

Foxconn Technology is providing a series of incentives to encourage the return and recruitment of more employees for its major assembly plants in Shenzhen and Chengzhou, China, seeking to fulfill as many shipments of iPhones as possible to Apple, according to industry sources.The sources said strict travel and traffic controls and fears of being infected with the coronavirus have discouraged many employees from returning. But Foxconn has offered free shuttle-bus commuting, meals and accommodation for workers in addition to thorough disinfection operations at plant sites, the sources.

The report also states that Foxconn has raised its extra bonus of CNY3,000 ($426) to CNY5,000-7,000 for both returning recruits and new employees.

The report claims that other manufacturers in the region have been forced to employ similar measures in order to get people back to work following the COVID-19 outbreak. Most recently, it was reported that Foxconn was cautiously restarting production at its main factories, it has previously warned that revenue for the year will be hurt by the epidemic. Foxconn reopened its main Zhengzhou plant two weeks ago, but only 10% of its workforce turned up.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9