The Foxconn plant in India that assembles iPhones  has been accused of failing to hire married women, according to an investigative report by Reuters.

The report cites a former human-resources executive at Foxconn India, S. Paul, as confirming that the company’s executives verbally convey these discriminatory recruitment rules to its Indian hiring agencies, which Foxconn has tasked with scouting for candidates.

Paul noted that Foxconn typically doesn’t hire married women because of “cultural issues” and that the company’s view was that there were “many issues post-marriage”, among them being that women “have babies after marriage.”

Reuters corroborated Paul’s account with 17 employees from more than a dozen Foxconn hiring agencies in India, as well as four current and former Foxconn human resources executives.

However, some of those who Reuters spoke to said that the Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn did relax those policies about married women during high-production periods when it sometimes required additional labour.

Also, some of the hiring agencies help women candidates conceal their marital status.

Apple and Foxconn, contacted by Reuters, acknowledged lapses in hiring practices in 2022 although Reuters contends that its investigation relates to discriminatory practices documented by its team in 2023 and 2024.

Foxconn said it “vigorously refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form.”

Foxconn’s code states it is committed to a workforce free of “unlawful discrimination,” and that the company and its suppliers should not discriminate over marital status, gender and other factors in hiring. Apple’s code for suppliers states that they and their subsidiaries, as well as any subcontractors, should not discriminate against any worker based on age, gender, marital status and other matters.

Foxconn said that in its latest round of hiring, almost 25 per cent of the women it hired were married, without specifying the number or where they were employed.

As Apple pulls away from its dependence on manufacturing in China, the Cupertino-based company and its suppliers aim to build more than 50 million iPhones in India annually within the next two to three years.

In April, Bloomberg reported that Apple had assembled A$21.01 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal year. The tech giant reportedly makes as much as 14 per cent of its marquee devices in India.

Foxconn’s other global facilities have also previously been criticised as having unfairly treated employees. In November 2023, China Labor Watch showcased stories of “labour rights violations, including forced overtime, recruitment discrimination, and sexual harassment” at Foxconn’s Chengdu, China, facility.

In January 2023, an investigation by Rest of World titled “iPhones are made in hell,” highlighted the working conditions at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China, where taking toilet breaks was a luxury, workers were strictly monitored, and humiliation was routine.