Wistron may soon restart operations at its Narasapura manufacturing plant (60 km from Bengaluru), two months after employees turned violent due to unpaid dues.
Speaking to the Times of India, Wistron Smart Devices president and CEO David Shen said the company is “looking forward to restarting operations” at the plant and “welcoming back team members.”
Thanking employees “for their patience and support as we worked through corrective actions,” Shen added that Wistron has been “working hard to raise standards and fix the issues after the December violence.”
“All employees have been promptly and fully paid, besides implementing a new hiring and payroll system to ensure everyone is paid correctly and provided documentation,” he said. Shen also shared that the new system allows workers to get information and raise concerns anonymously.
The facility assembles Apple’s iPhones and employs 12,000 workers. Wistron originally committed to invest Rs 3,000 crore towards it.
After reports of the violence broke, Apple and Wistron were quick to acknowledge lapses in payments, which was the reason why workers destroyed equipment and vehicles worth Rs 40-50 crore. Wistron’s former India chief Vincent Lee was also sacked for the incident.
Apple told the paper that independent auditors worked with Wistron for eight weeks to ensure that the necessary systems and processes are now in place at the facility.
Sources told TOI that Wistron was still on probation by Apple and the latter’s employees and independent auditors would “ remain on site to validate that the new processes are effective”.