Apple contractor Foxconn lines up new bonuses to retain workers in China

Nearly 700 euros is the new bonus offered by Foxconn to workers at the largest iPhone factory in China who agree to work until March.

© Carlos García Rawlins, Reuters

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Nearly 700 euros: this is the new bonus offered by Foxconn to workers at the largest iPhone factory in China.

The offer is valid for employees who agree to work until March, as the relaxation of sanitary measures worsens the labor shortage in the supply chain.

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With our correspondent in Beijing

,

Stéphane Lagarde 

The Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou is far from having regained its full capacity.

Despite the help of local authorities, recruitment campaigns and salary increases, the Apple subcontractor is struggling to hire.

However, it is on this industrial campus, a veritable city within a city located near the airport of the capital of the central province of Henan, that 80% of iPhones “made in China” are manufactured.

The workers' revolt last fall severely disrupted production, as well as the shipment of the latest models.

Factories slowed down by infections 

The images

of the riots

against degraded working conditions with health restrictions, also following the non-respect of certain temporary contracts, have gone around the world.

Above all, they alerted the central power to the rise in social discontent linked to the zero Covid strategy.

We have since known that the founder of Foxconn then wrote a letter to Chinese leaders, warning them of the economic risks of an extension of the policy of absolute non-tolerance with the virus.

Since then, the restrictive measures have been lifted, but

the outbreak of infections

is paralyzing part of the assembly lines.

What led to these new financial incentives for employees occupying key positions in the manufacture of Apple brand smartphones from January 1 to March 20, in other words for those who agree not to go on vacation during the holidays Lunar New Year. 

According to market research firm Trendforce, quoted by the South China Morning Post, the Omicron tsunami could lead to a 22% decline in iPhone shipments in the first quarter of 2023. 

Also to listen: Liu Young-way, the discreet president of the giant Foxconn

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