Foxconn employees try to gate-crash into factory, arrested

CHENNAI: About 530 employees of phone parts maker Foxconn’s India factory were arrested after they forcibly tried to enter through the Chennai plant’s gates today. The police restrained them and move them to a nearby marriage hall where the employees are detained.

Tuesday marked the second day of protests. On Monday, angry employees numbering close to one thousand gathered outside the factory after morning-shift workers found the gates locked, two days ahead of the date set by Foxconn for operations suspension. A Foxconn management executive said intimations asking workers to go on compulsory leave were passed before-hand because there was no work to do. “They wanted to enter the factory and register attendance, which the management will just not allow,” the executive told ET on a condition of anonymity.

The Foxconn factory, which occupied about a fifth of the 210-acre Nokia Telecom SEZ, is on the brink after Nokia stopped manufacturing phones at its plant. It has been eight years since Foxconn followed the Finnish phone-maker into India. FIH Mobile Ltd, by the second week of December, put out a statement saying its actions will be “fair” to about 1,700 employees who will lose their jobs.

Foxconn’s suspension of production was taken up by the labour department, which is conducting conciliation talks, but even after four such negotiations, the labour trouble is escalating. The management had put out a notice on Tuesday at the factory reasoning out that Nokia’s closure has triggered the move.

The company has also urged the union to relax its stance and accept the severance package. Until then, Foxconn wants its employees to be “on leave” and the December month’s salary will be credited to the workers’ accounts. It has also urged to the unions not to prolong protests and jeopardise opportunities of a decent settlement package.

Kannan, a union member, said there will be more protests. Foxconn has not yet responded to ET’s queries on the developments at the Sriperambudur factory.

Kancheepuram district police officials confirmed that the detained employees were to be released later on Tuesday evening.