Apple supplier Foxconn suspends hiring at largest iPhone factory for 3 days over shortage of quarantine space
- Hiring has been suspended through Saturday as Foxconn’s strict quarantine policy has been unable to keep up with an influx of new workers
- Since a Covid-19 outbreak spurred an exodus of workers, Foxconn and local governments have raced to restaff the factory to get it back to normal production
Yet strict quarantine policies have meant that there is not enough room for a huge influx of workers. Hiring has been suspended from Thursday to Saturday, an agent told the South China Morning Post over the phone on Friday. The person, who asked not to be named because he is not allowed to speak with news media, said many jobseekers are still applying.
More than 100,000 applicants have put their information into Foxconn’s pre-hiring system, Chinese financial news outlet Yicai quoted an unidentified Foxconn executive as saying on Friday. If every applicant were hired, it would be enough for Foxconn to fill all of its vacant positions.
Under the required closed-loop mode of production that keeps workers confined to Foxconn’s campus to minimise the spread of Covid-19, potential job candidates must go through a health check and a quarantine at a designated location before going to work on production lines. New hires must quarantine for four days, according to the latest notice from Foxconn’s iPhone production unit in Zhengzhou.