Senior production staff end protest at Wistron's iPhone assembly unit

More than 400 senior production staff of Wistron’s iPhone assembly unit in Kolar, who had been holding protests since Monday demanding wage parity with junior contractual workers, called off their action on Friday.

The protesting employees on the direct payroll of the Taiwanese firm resumed work after the management agreed to consider their demands in the presence of the labour department officials, Wistron insiders said.

Confirming the development, Kolar district commissioner Venkat Raja told ET, “A section of senior production staff at Wistron went on protests against the management demanding higher wages… The protest has now been called off after the management gave assurances that their demands will be addressed.”

It was a peaceful protest with no law and order issue, Raja said.

In a statement, a spokesperson at Wistron said, "there was no strike or disruptions to production. Operations are normal."

However, some employees that ET spoke to said there was some impact.

Wistron’s Kolar manufacturing plant currently assembles the iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12, and iPhone SE models.

Emails sent to Apple went unanswered as of press time Friday.

Some Wistron employees ET spoke to said on condition of anonymity that son the wage disparity between on-roll workers and contract workers is an old issue that had cropped up a few times in the past, too, but had been managed by the senior executives at that time.

One of the people cited an instance where an employee with five years of experience would be paid Rs 28,000 while a new hire would fetch Rs 40,000. They said in November 2022, an executive from Taiwan intervened in the demands of an employee, getting them a 40% hike with only general shift duty.

Another executive in the know said the roughly 14,000 workers at Wistron have a hierarchy starting with contract workers, workers on direct payroll, senior staff for engineering and quality control, managers, and then the directors and the senior management.

Out of them, the senior engineering staff who manage the production process, laboratories and quality control had staged protests. Sources said the protests erupted after the annual increments came. Some employees alleged that the hikes were low, with many senior staff receiving negligible hikes while the new hires got higher increments.

Wistron is, in fact, on the verge of selling its Kolar factory to Tata Group, whose officials have started taking over some functions.