Apple recently put Foxconn’s factory near Chennai in southern India on probation, in the wake of worker protests and exposure of below-standard living conditions. Workers are revealing additional details of unsanitary conditions, including finding worms crawling through their food.
Reuters reports that the protest was chiefly led by women working at the plant — and some of those women have revealed what made it necessary. The protest began when the food, including worms, sickened more than 250 workers.
“People living in the hostels always had some illness or the other — skin allergies, chest pain, food poisoning,” one worker who quit the plant after the protest, told Reuters. “We didn’t make a big deal out of it because we thought it will be fixed. But now, it affected a lot of people.”
Six female Foxconn employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said workers were expected to sleep on the floor in rooms housing between six and thirty women. Complaints include hostel rooms without running water.
Local laws are reported to require each worker to have at least 120 square feet of living space, and there are other hygiene and fire safety standards that are allegedly not being met.
Local laws reportedly require each worker to be allocated at least 120 square feet of living space. There are also hygiene and fire safety standards that are not being followed in the workers’ hostels.
Foxconn has apologized, saying in a statement that it was “very sorry for the issue our employees experienced” and is “taking immediate steps to enhance the facilities and services we provide.”