iPhone maker Wistron sacks vice president Vincent Lee from Narasapura facility near Bengaluru

After thousands of people including its employees vandalised the campus while breaking window panes, ATM machines, CCTV cameras, vehicles and other equipment at the Wistron campus located near Bengaluru on the issue of salary deductions and untimely payments of wages, the Taiwanese conglomerate  that manufacturers iphones here in India has sacked its vice-president Vincent Lee who was overseeing the business in India. The company later agreed to lapses in payment to workers at the Narasapura facility near Bengaluru.

“Since the unfortunate events at our Narasapura facility we have been investigating and have found that some workers were not paid correctly, or on time. We deeply regret this and apologize to all of our workers,” said the company in a statement. “Some of the processes we put in place to manage labour agencies and payments need to be strengthened and upgraded. We are removing the Vice President who oversees our business in India,” it added.

The company which manufactures Apple iPhones apart from Lenovo and Microsoft products at the 44-acre plant said that it is enhancing its processes and restructuring the teams to ensure these issues do not happen again. The company has around 1,000 people in various managerial roles in the country.

While assuring that all employees will be fully compensated immediately the company has established an employee assistance program for workers at the facility. “We also set up a 24-hour grievance hotline in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and English to ensure all workers can voice any concerns they may have anonymously,” according to the company. It reiterated that it is committed to business and employees in India.

The company had ramped up the employee base from around 2,000 in June to 12,000 in October. An initial labour department report pointed to violations in labour laws at the company. The report stated that Wistron did not keep up salary and attendance records as required by law and contract staff  were unhappy about non-payment of wages for extra work hours, according to Reuters.

The state government has said that it is working closely with the management of the company to ensure that the plant is restarted at the earliest and genuine grievances of the workers are addressed. ”Wistron is a very important project and a flag bearer of India’s ambitions to become a global hub for electronics manufacturing.