Apple joins call for changes in working hours law in India

by Jonny Evans · March 21, 2023

Another day, another bunch of news from India, where Apple has both pushed up average smartphone selling prices and is now engaged in pressing for changes to labour law in India.

12-hour shifts twice daily

We only recently heard that Foxconn was pressing for such changes – designed to make employees make more iPhones faster – now we hear Apple is supporting these attempts.

It reflects the corporation’s overarching strategy to expand local production in India, which is requiring a lot of work and negotiation with both national and regional governments.

That’s also when we heard some regions are considering new rules to make working in factories more flexible. But not necessarily in a way anyone here would want to spend their lives – we’re talking night and day shifts that are 12 hours long. Right now, working days are capped at 8 hours with three shifts a day. The rules may also encourage more women to work in the iPhone factories.

Similar rules were recently agreed in another region in India. Karnataka. That’s where Wistron has an iPhone plant and is also where Foxconn will invest hundreds of millions in a new factory.

What’s going on?

What’s happening now is that Apple executives and the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association lobby group, which comprised Apple, Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and others are meeting with regional government in Tamil Nadu, home of India’s largest iPhone plant.

Talks have been ongoing for the last six months to push for reforms to bring local working hours in line with those in China.

Apple wants this, of course, because it wants to continue to maintain profit margins and it knows its customers are unlikely to want to pay even more for their phones than they already do.

A report in Economic Times tells us that none of the parties are ready to comment on these claims, but suggests local officials are keen to attract the jobs and business to their states.

In a statement, the ICEA said “These reforms are overdue and at the heart of Make in India program’s policy objectives.”

In other recent news from India:

Apple is about to open its first retail stores in India.
Foxconn plans to begin AirPods production in India.
New India smartphone security proposals may cause problems for Apple.
India’s changed labour laws for Foxconn in one region.
Apple has decided to change its global sales structure, elevating Ashish Chowdhary to lead Apple’s teams in India.
Apple VP Lisa Jackson gave an extraordinarily insightful interviewin which the company promised to make big investments in carbon neutral supply chain development in India.
Apple also announced it will work with NGO Frank Water to improve water managementin India and Bengaluru.
More recently, a senior executive of an Apple partner called Goertek made news when he suggested Apple is pushing really hard to get suppliers to set up manufacturing in India.
That same executive made headlines again a few days later when he suddenly resigned with immediate effect.
Apple supplier Foxconn announced a massive $700 million investment in building a new manufacturing facilityat about the same time.
That’s raising some friction in China, where Foxconn had to deny claims distributed on social media that the company is dismantling its existing production linesin China’s Shenzhen.