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Foxconn Offers to Pay Workers $1,400 to Leave Following Violent Protests

Foxconn Offers to Pay Workers $1,400 to Leave Following Violent Protests

Foxconn has offered to pay newly recruited workers 10,000 yuan ($1,400) to quit and leave the world’s largest iPhone assembly factory. The offer comes following protests that saw hundreds clash with security forces at the plant on Tuesday.

In a text message sent from its human resources department to workers, and shared by CNN, the company urged workers to “please return to your dormitories” on the campus. It also promised to pay them 8.000 yuan if they agreed to quit Foxconn and another 2,000 yuan after they board buses to leave the sprawling site altogether.

Workers on Tuesday rioted at the Foxconn iPhone plant in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou. Video shared on social media shows hundreds of Foxconn workers marching, clashing with police, and being confronted by people wearing hazmat suits.

Workers complained about the food they had been provided, while others complained that they had not been paid promised bonuses.

“The new recruits had to work more days to get the bonus they were promised, so they felt cheated,” a worker told CNN.

Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant employs approximately 200,000 workers and is Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory. Foxconn assembles 70% of all iPhones sold by Apple. The company has struggled to retain employees, due to China’s restrictive lockdowns required by the country’s zero-COVID policy.

China requires cities to quickly spell COVID outbreaks via extreme restrictions. As COVID has spread in Zhengzhou, Foxconn workers have attempted to return home to avoid being trapped at the plant in the face of more stringent lockdowns.

Workers have also revolted against restrictions at the factory, including the closure of the dine-in cafeteria, and a shortage of supplies.

There are worries that the issues at the plant could cause iPhone output to fall as much as 30%. Foxconn earlier this month quadrupled daily bonuses to workers, in an attempt to retain enough workers to continue with iPhone assembly.