Apple’s team is at Tata Electronics’ fire-hit unit to ‘counsel and guide’

Apple’s supplier responsibility (SR) team has been at the Tata Electronics facility in Hosur since Sunday to “counsel and advise” the Indian contract manufacturer that suffered a massive fire in one of its units on Saturday, multiple people aware of the developments told ET.

This is a routine occurrence whenever incidents of this nature occur, they added.

The SR team, which consists of three Apple officials, is expected to review the situation and support its sole Indian vendor which produces enclosures for the iPhones, one of the persons cited above said.

“Apple generally sends its SR team whenever there is a safety issue or labour-related incident,” he said. “It is a routine practice and even happened during the time when Wistron had a labour issue as well as when Foxconn had a food poisoning incident.”

Another person in the know said it was an expected move from the Cupertino-based tech giant as it does this as a hygiene measure with all its suppliers whenever grave incidents like this take place.

Queries sent to Apple remained unanswered as of press time Wednesday.

As per the company, in 2023, it conducted 153 issue-focused audits including those focused on working hours compliance, hiring practices, labour agency management, and specific health and safety issues.

On Saturday, a massive fire broke out in an area that stores chemicals for electronic components in the factory, causing minor injuries to 10 people and halting production.

In response to ET’s queries, a Tata Electronics spokesperson said, “There has been an unfortunate incident of fire at our plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. Our emergency protocols at the plant ensured that all our employees are safe. The cause of the fire is under investigation and we will take necessary actions to safeguard the interest of our employees and other stakeholders.”

The second person cited above said a government-related probe is also underway and that the director of the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) would inspect the unit that was ablaze.

“The company has around six units, of which one got completely burned out,” he said. “The company would have made alternate arrangements so that the production is not impacted as much because the site has to be preserved for the enquiry. They will also probably look into factors like air quality, presence of alternate arrangements.”

DISH is expected to inspect the unit and evaluate if it’s safe for workers to begin working again “in the next two days”, the person said. The company can begin production only after it gets a go-ahead from DISH.

“As of now, the forensic department has done a study and the preliminary report suggests that the fire was caused by some chemical getting overheated. This is in line with the version of the workers who said it was a slow fire that began with smoke first,” the person said.