Apple supplier Foxconn’s plant near Chennai in southern India will remain closed this week, government sources told Reuters.
The Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police said a five-day holiday has been declared at the plant.
This was also confirmed by a senior official of the state of Tamil Nadu, whose capital is Chennai.
Foxconn And Apple were not immediately available for comment.
Police in India on Monday released dozens of people detained for blocking a major highway in protest food poisoning incident Last week 150 workers were hospitalized at the Foxconn plant. The plant makes the iPhone 12 model.
A police officer told Reuters that plant workers and their relatives were among those blocking the highway connecting Chennai to India’s technology hub of Bengaluru.
Majority of Foxconn employees in India are women.
Apple begins trial production of its flagship iphone 13 The Factory Lately, The Economic Times Reported on Tuesday, citing sources, and said that the company expects to start commercial production of the model in India for both the domestic market and exports by February.
India is among countries like Mexico and Vietnam that are becoming increasingly important to contract manufacturers supplying American brands as they try to reduce their dependence on China amid rising Sino-US tensions.
The unrest at Foxconn is the second involving an Apple supplier factory in India in over a year.
In December last year, thousands of contract workers at a factory owned by an Apple supplier Python Equipment and vehicles were destroyed for alleged non-payment of wages, causing an estimated loss of $60 million (about Rs 450 crore).
© Thomson Reuters 2021
,