World-renowned technology giant Apple was the first company to achieve a trillion-dollar market cap. With revenue of $274.5 billion, Apple is the world’s third-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung and Huawei. Surprising as it may sound to some, Apple does not manufacture iPhones. Yes, technically speaking, they only design their products and then get them manufactured through their contract manufacturers (CMs) or Original Device Manufacturers (ODMs). One such ODM is the Wistron Corporation with revenues of $29 billion. Based in Taiwan, it was the manufacturing arm of Acer Inc. It has nearly 85,000 employees worldwide with manufacturing plants in India, China, Malaysia, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and the United States.
According to media reports, Wistron operates an iPhone assembly plant at Peenya in Bengaluru and employs 3500 people all across India. However, since July 2020, Wistron started manufacturing select iPhone models at their sprawling 43 acres, brand-new manufacturing unit in Narasapura (Kolar district, near Bengaluru). Reports suggest that the Narasapura unit employs about 1300 regular staffers and some 8000 contractual employees.
On 12 December, a group of temporary workers at Wistron’s Narasapura unit raised slogans and vandalised vehicles, complaining of non-payment of regular and overtime dues. After an investigation into the matter, Wistron and the Karnataka state government accepted that there have been lapses in payments to the staff, with Apple saying that they have placed – “Wistron on probation and they will not receive any new business from Apple before they complete corrective actions”.
NOT A NEW DEVELOPMENT
However, this is not the first time that tech-companies and multinationals have come under fire due to their treatment of labour. In a seminal report (July 12, 2011) – “Tragedies of Globalisation: The Truth Behind Electronics Sweatshops”, China Labour Watch took the lid off on multiple violations of China’s Labour Law, from October 2010 to June 2011, through an investigation of ten global brand supplier electronics factories across China.
Some of the findings of the report include the following violations – “No factory was found to be in strict compliance with China’s labour law, which states that overtime should not exceed 36 hours each month. Most factories tended to have overtime hours between 36 and 160 hours a month. The minimum wage in nine factories did not meet the living costs of its workers. Workers cannot earn a living wage from normal working hours alone and must work excessive overtime hours to earn enough money to survive.
In all 10 factories, the labour intensity is extremely high. For example, workers in an HP production line must complete an action every three seconds, standing for 10 consecutive hours each day. In many of these factories, there is only a 10-minute break in the middle of the day, during which workers can drink water and use the restroom. However, there are many people and few toilets, so some workers have no opportunity to use the washroom during this time.
None of the factories that were investigated signed labour contracts in good faith with workers. Most of the time, workers are not properly informed about the specific details of the contract before signing. All of the investigated factories revealed instances of recruitment discrimination due to age, gender, etc.” As the Narsapura incident reveals, things have not changed very drastically for labour. Multinationals like Apple have a simple and effective policy of passing the buck to their ODMs for any labour-related issues and maintaining a holier-than-thou attitude and indulging in cosmetic window-dressing by announcing fair and ethical ‘human rights policy’ and ‘supplier code of conduct’.
The situation of workers in our own country has become even more precarious with the introduction of some drastic changes in labour laws by the government in its efforts to make India ‘business-friendly’ and attract foreign investment in manufacturing.
CHANGES IN INDIAN LABOUR LAWS
Parliament passed three laws in September this year namely – The Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. Last year it also cleared the Code on Wages. These laws will now permit legal shift work to extend to 12 hours a day. If we add commute time and a mandatory half-hour meal break, it can be said that the Indian labour shall have a mere 10 hours at his disposal to sleep and lead a ‘normal human life’.
It is alleged that the new codes dilute and repeal many legal provisions that protect the rights and security of workers as well as exclude a large number of informal workers mostly women from the protection offered by these codes. They also fail to include many companies from adhering to the compliance and enforcement mechanisms. For example, according to the Industrial Relations Code, Indian companies need the permission of the government to retrench workers only if they employ more than 300 workers. This will pave the way towards a hire and fire policy for a majority of the workforce in this country.
The Wage Code has problematic clauses affecting the minimum wage, frequency of wage revision and its application to domestic workers and the informal economy. There needs to be an adequate representation of workers in the advisory boards at the state and central levels. According to Corinne Vargha of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), member states of the ILO are given the following advice in view of the Covid-pandemic – “Stimulate your economy and the employment. Second, support your enterprise jobs and incomes. Third, protect the workers in their workplace, and fourth, rely on social dialogue for resolution.”
A MORAL CODE FOR LABOUR WELFARE
Islam lays out great importance towards the dignity of labour and honouring manual work. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Never has anyone eaten a better food than what he has eaten out of the labour of his own hands; and Dawood, the Prophet of Allah, used to eat out of the labour of his own hands.” (Bukhari)
Islam stresses putting down contracts and agreements in writing so that the formal undertaking can be adhered to in letter and spirit and the parties to the contract may not digress from their solemn pledge and promise. The Prophet ﷺ said: “They (your slaves or servants) are your brethren. Allah has placed them under your control; so, whoever has his brother under his control should feed him from what he (himself) eats and give him clothes the like of which he (himself) wears; and do not impose on them a task which should be too hard for them, and if you impose on them such a task, then help them (in doing it).” (Bukhari and Muslim).
The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Pay the labourer his wages before his sweat dries up.” (Ibn Majah) It implies avoiding any delay in paying the workers’ dues and guaranteeing it under some contractual agreement. It is not easy to maintain the delicate balance between the freedoms that entrepreneurs, businesses and companies deserve to produce and provide services to their customers and rights and security that labour should be guaranteed. The Islamic approach succeeds in striking that balance as it revives the moral spirit in both labour and capital (represented by business/market forces). It urges capital to exercise benevolence and welfare and exhorts labour to be true to their terms of employment and give their very best in an honest manner. The world needs a new paradigm for labour-capital relations and Islam can show the way.