Scathing report reveals 'serious violations' of labor law in Wistron iPhone factory

A new report says "serious violations of labor laws" have been uncovered at a Wistron iPhone plant where a riot broke out last week.

From the South China Morning Post:

Serious violations of labour laws were taking place at the iPhone manufacturing facility in India where a workers' protest on Saturday turned violent and caused US$7 million worth of damage, a report by the Karnataka state government has found. Exploitative practices such as underpayment of wages, irregular hours and poor working conditions were common at the Wistron Corporation assembling and manufacturing unit in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, as detailed by its Department of Factories, Boilers, Industrial Safety and Health. This Week in Asia has seen a copy of the report, an internal document detailing preliminary investigations into the incident from the department, which is tasked with enforcing labour-related legislation to ensure workers' safety.

The report follows earlier reports this morning claiming a massive hiring spree may have caused unrest that sparked the riot, as the Wistron only had three HR staff to deal with an influx of thousands of employees. This new report seems to confirm this sentiment.

The report says that Wistron's HR department had "poor knowledge of labor regulations" and "not enough personnel" to manage 10,500 employees including 8,500 contractors. A source told the outlet:

"It is fairly a new establishment which became operational only in September and because of that, the system may not be fully in place... But neither the management nor the workmen have ever approached the labour department before this issue … they could have taken guidance [before the crisis]."

A riot broke out at the factory Friday over reports workers had not been paid.