After employee unrest interrupted operations, Foxconn's facility in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou may see a decrease in iPhone production of at least 30%, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Friday. The estimate, according to the source, who requested anonymity because the information was confidential, was an upward adjustment of an internal October prognosis for a production impact of up to 30% at the largest iPhone manufacturing in the world.
The company had set an internal deadline before Wednesday's wave of protests, but after this week's round of worker unrest at the plant, the source added, it was "impossible" for the company to resume full production by the end of the month.
Foxconn opted not to respond.
On Friday morning, Reuters reported that more than 20,000 workers had departed Foxconn, an Apple supplier, at its Zhengzhou facility in China. The majority of these workers were new hires who had not yet started working on the production line. The individual said that the departures would make it more difficult for the business to meet its prior goal of restarting full production by the end of November after employee discontent disrupted operations at the biggest iPhone facility in the world.
Foxconn has apologised for making a "technical mistake" in salary calculations when recruiting new hires, which employees claim contributed to demonstrations that included physical altercations with security guards.
Workers at the Zhengzhou plant claim that claims of unpaid wages and annoyance over the strict COVID-19 restrictions are what caused the rare instances of open dissent that started on Wednesday.
A second Foxconn source with knowledge of the situation claimed that some new hires had left the campus, but she did not specify how many. The person claimed that because the new staff still needed to complete training before working online, the departures had no effect on current production.
Foxconn started a hiring drive earlier this month with the promise of bonuses and higher pay after having to take action in October to stop the spread of COVID-19. The company was forced to isolate many employees due to the curbs, and the conditions at the plant led some workers to leave.
