iPhone Maker Foxconn Offers $718 Subsidy, In Bid To Retain Staff

Weeks after witnessing workers’ unrest, Apple’s biggest contract manufacturer Foxconn is offering a subsidy of $718 to employees to keep working after struggles in the wake of the COVID-19 restrictions, the media has reported. Foxconn will offer a subsidy for workers who stay in essential roles at the Zhengzhou iPhone factory from January 1 to March 20, says a report by Apple Insider

In a bid to woo its staffers, the iPhone assembler is also extending the “show up” bonus payments. Workers can receive a 6,000 yuan or roughly $862 bonus if they work more than 23 days in January 2023, the Apple Insider report added quoting South China Morning Post.

To recall, earlier in November, videos surfaced on Chinese social media sites that showed several Chinese migrant workers scaling a fence outside a Foxconn plant, which manufactures Apple iPhones, due to poor conditions at the plant. The videos showed workers fleeing China’s largest iPhone plant in COVID-hit Zhengzhou, amid a lockdown triggered by the outbreak of coronavirus. The unrest also lead to thousands of workers to quit.

However, soon after, Foxconn announced on one of its official WeChat social media accounts that it would end the so-called “closed loop” system at the facility in central China, that required workers to stay in their workplaces and dormitories to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections, several reports said. The company also reopened its on-campus cafeterias and will no longer provide three free meals per day, it said. The lack of access to cafeterias in what’s known as iPhone City had become a significant hurdle to keeping workers fed during the pandemic, sparking an exodus of thousands of employees.

Meal expenses will now be deducted from staff wages, the company said, adding that it will provide 15 yuan per day of subsidies from December 16 to December 31 to those who work regularly. The company will continue to provide free meals to Covid patients who choose to stay at company-appointed accommodations, it added.