Foxconn is apologizing over a wage dispute at an iPhone factory that reportedly pays workers who choose to go home

The company that assembles Apple’s iPhones apologized on Thursday over a wage dispute that sparked protests from employees at a factory where anti-virus controls slowed production.

The staff complained Foxconn Changed the terms of wages offered to attract them to the factory in downtown Zhengzhou. Foxconn is trying to rebuild its workforce after employees walked out last month due to complaints about unsafe conditions.

Videos on social media showed policemen in white hazmat suits kicking and beating workers during the protest, which broke out on Tuesday and continued into the next day.

Foxconn, Inc.’s largest contracting aggregator of smartphones and other electronics apple And other global brands, blamed a “technical error” in the process of adding new employees and said they would get what they promised.

“We apologize for the error in entering the computer system and guarantee that the actual wage is the same as agreed upon and on the official recruitment posters,” a company statement said. It promised to “do its best to resolve employees’ reasonable concerns and demands.”

The spat comes as the ruling Communist Party tries to contain a surge in coronavirus cases without shutting down factories, as it did in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Its tactics include “closed-loop management” or having employees live at their workplace without outside contact.

Last month, the authorities promised to reduce economic disruption by shortening quarantine times and making other changes to the “zero-count” policy.Corona virus diseaseThe strategy, however, is to isolate each case. Despite this, the surge in infections has prompted authorities to suspend access to neighborhoods and factories and close office buildings, shops and restaurants in parts of many cities.

On Thursday, people in eight districts of Zhengzhou with a total population of 6.6 million were asked to stay home for five days. Daily mass testing has been ordered for a “war of annihilation” against the virus.

Apple warned earlier iPhone 14 Deliveries will be delayed after employees have moved out of the Zhengzhou factory and access to the industrial area surrounding the facility has been suspended following the outbreak.

To attract new workers, Foxconn has offered 25,000 yuan (about 2.8 lakh rupees) for two months of work, according to employees, or nearly 50 per cent more than news reports say the highest wages are usually.

Employees complained that after they arrived, they were told they had to work two more months at lower pay to receive the higher pay, according to the employee, Li Sanshan.

The financial news agency Kailianshi reported, citing anonymous recruiting agents, that Foxconn offered up to 10,000 yuan (about 1.1 lakh rupees) for new employees who chose to leave.

Foxconn’s statement on Thursday said the employees leaving would receive unspecified “care benefits,” but gave no details. She promised “universal support” for those who remained.

The protests in the city of Zhengzhou come amid public frustration with restrictions that have left millions of people confined to their homes. Videos on social media show residents in some areas tearing down barricades erected to enforce neighborhood lockdowns.

Foxconn, which is headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan, earlier denied what it said were comments online that employees with the virus were living in the factory’s dormitories.