To prevent more workers from leaving amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Foxconn is raising bonuses at the largest iPhone factory in China to boost iPhone 14 Pro production as the holiday season is about to start. Here’s what you need to know.
The last couple of weeks have been chaotic at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant, the largest iPhone factory that accounts for 60% of all iPhones produced, following another outbreak of COVID-19 over the weekend.
According to Nikkei Asia, with reports of workers leaving the plant, Foxconn decided to raise bonuses for its employees as it wants to boost iPhone 14 Pro production. The publication writes:
The daily attendance allowance will be increased from 100 yuan ($13.75) to 400 yuan, while workers recording “full attendance” this month will receive a total bonus of more than 15,000 yuan, the company announced on Tuesday. Full attendance includes not taking any days off, not arriving more than 30 minutes late, or leaving more than 30 minutes early, and working at least eight hours a day.
As reported by Nikkei, “full attendance bonus normally tops out at around 11,000 yuan during the peak production season.” Still, with the largest iPhone facility suffering from disruptions related to a COVID-19 outbreak, Foxconn is trying to maintain the factory at total capacity as much as possible.
A worker at the facility told Nikkei Asia he was “very happy” about the higher bonus, and that the majority of his co-workers were continuing to report for work as usual.
That said, customers across the globe are still struggling to find the flagship models of the iPhone 14 as Apple tries to keep up with the demand. On the other hand, the regular versions are easy to find, which troubles Apple. The company sees lower-than-expected sales as a customer’s response to the lack of new features introduced for the base models.
BGR will report back as the story unfolds.
More coverage: A manufacturer in India begins producing iPhone 14 as Apple tries to diversity supply chain.
