• Thursday, March 28, 2024

HEADLINE STORY

Food poisoning at Foxconn’s India unit triggers protest

FILE PHOTO: An ambulance is seen at the entrance of a factory operated by Taiwan-based IT giant Foxconn at Sriperumpudur, in the outskirts of Chennai, on July 27, 2010.(STRDEL/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Pramod Kumar

INDIAN police detained scores of people for blocking highways in a protest against food poisoning incident at a Foxconn India unit, which makes iPhones for Apple Inc, a police official said on Sunday (19).

More than 150 employees at Foxconn’s production unit in southern India were hospitalised after a bout of food poisoning at Foxconn’s dormitories, where a majority of its staff lives.

Food poisoning sparked protests by workers and their relatives, who blocked a key Chennai-Bengaluru highway for several hours, said a police official said.

“Nearly 70 women and 22 men have been detained since Saturday (18) for blocking highway,” the official said.

According to reports, more than 150 employees were hospitalised for food poisoning this week but almost all have now been discharged, the district government said.

“There was an outbreak of acute diarrhoeal disease reported among the Foxconn employees,” the statement from the Thiruvallur district administration said.

It said 256 workers were treated as out-patients and 159 were hospitalised, of whom 155 have already been discharged.

Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not clear whether the incident would disrupt production at the plant in Sriperumbudur, which is on the outskirts of Chennai.

Most of the Taiwanese manufacturer’s workers in India are women, media reports said.

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