The NHRC said labor officials failed to adequately investigate complaints of employment discrimination at Foxconn.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has criticized labor officials for not thoroughly investigating allegations of employment discrimination at Foxconn’s iPhone assembly plant in India. The watchdog has ordered federal and Tamil Nadu state officials to re-evaluate Foxconn’s employment practices after finding that married women were excluded from assembly line jobs. The NHRC directive comes as Foxconn and Apple look to expand manufacturing operations in India, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to boost electronics production in the country.

According to a Reuters report, labor officials visited the Foxconn factory in July but did not make their findings public. The documents it reviewed show that Tamil Nadu labor officials told the NHRC that 6.7 percent of the 33,360 women employed at the factory were married, without specifying whether they worked on the assembly line. Officials said the hiring of women workers from six districts “clearly shows that a large number of women workers are employed by the company … without any discrimination.” However, the NHRC said the authorities have not addressed the core issue of discrimination against married women.

The NHRC stated that the labor authorities submitted their report in a formal/routine manner and failed to scrutinize Foxconn’s employment documents. The commission emphasized that “the fact that there are currently a certain number of female employees (a) does not answer the question (b) that the company discriminated against married women at the time of employment.” In this respect”

The commission has ordered a “thorough investigation” within four weeks, reflecting its powers with civil courts to choose remedial measures, including compensation. Neither state nor federal labor departments responded to requests for comment on the NHRC review. The NHRC’s intervention is in line with the government’s assertion that India’s Equal Pay Act prohibits discrimination in recruitment on the basis of sex.

(With resources from Reuters)