Chinese iPhone factory increases bonuses for employees who are confined

The world’s biggest iPhone factory in central China told workers on Tuesday it would quadruple their bonuses if they stay at the factory after many workers fled the facility’s lockdown due to a Covid outbreak.

Foxconn’s factory in Zhengzhou, which employs more than 200,000 people, has been closed since mid-October following detection of a coronavirus outbreak. The company ensures that it carries out daily tests on its employees and keeps them in a closed circle.

But workers on Chinese social media denounce poor working conditions and inadequate sanitary measures for uncontaminated workers.

Videos released over the weekend on the Internet show Foxconn employees fleeing the company, even with bags in hand, to return home on foot and avoid the confinement decreed due to Covid.

Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory said on its official WeChat profile that from Monday, employees will receive a daily bonus of 400 yuan for reporting to work, four times the previous allowance of 100 yuan. per day.

Employees will also receive additional bonuses if they show up for work for 15 days or more in November, up to 15,000 yuan (R$10,720) if they register full attendance this month.

Foxconn, which supplies iPhones to US-based Apple, has pledged to do more to help its employees and said it will arrange transportation to take employees home if they want to leave.

Local governments in the area around the city have asked fleeing workers to register with authorities if they return home, to complete a multi-day quarantine upon arrival.

China is the last major economy to maintain a Covid-zero strategy, with lockdowns, mass testing and extensive quarantines to eradicate outbreaks. But new, fast-spreading variants made early detection of cases difficult.