The Zhengzhou plant owned by Foxconn, also known as iPhone City, has raised the bonuses of its workers for the third time in the month to retain them and achieve timely production of iPhone 15 as the launch nears.
Foxconn struggling to retain workers
As reported by South China Morning Post, Foxconn is offering new workers incentives up to 3,000 yuan or US$424 for workers to remain on the production line for at least three months. The workers at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou draw an hourly pay of up to 21 yuan. The iPhone supplier is not only offering incentives for new recruits but has also offered a referral bonus of 500 yuan for existing workers. “From Monday, new employees will be entitled to receive bonuses of up to 3,000 yuan (US$424) for at least 90 days of work at the factory, while drawing an hourly pay of up to 21 yuan, according to a WeChat post on Saturday by Foxconn’s integrated Digital Product Business Group, which is responsible for iPhone production,” wrote SCMP. This is the third time in a month that Foxconn has raised worker bonuses. Previously, the loyalty bonus for new workers who will remain on the production line for at least 90 days was raised to 2,500 yuan on May from 2,000 yuan on May 3. The third raise can be seen as the desperate measures by Foxconn from avoiding the situation it faced last year which impacted the production of iPhone 14 models. In late 2022, Apple’s Foxconn plant in iPhone City suffered a major disruption due to the Covid outbreak. As the Zhengzhou plant was declared a high-risk zone, closed-loop production was carried out for a period of 15 days to achieve the targeted iPhone 14 production. Due to the Covid outbreak in the plant, which can employ up to 200,000 workers, several workers refused to work and walked out of the plant to reach their homes. At that time, Foxconn started offering free meals and bonuses of up to 1,500 yuan or $200 to complete their shifts. While this may look like a small amount, it was equivalent to 20% of their monthly salary. However, bonuses didn’t convince workers last year as several workers decided to walk out despite promises of incentives to stay and complete their shifts. Foxconn is responsible for assembling around 80% of iPhones produced in the world. A situation like last year’s could prove costly to Apple and cause major supply issues.
