Foxconn to officially close its Chennai factory on February 10

Workers' union plans to intensify agitation against closure of facility

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, which had suspended its Chennai operations in December, will officially close the factory tomorrow. The plant was a major supplier for Nokia, which shut down its factory on November 1.

The factory, after the fall out of Nokia facility in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, had around 1,306 workers at the Chennai plant, located inside the Nokia SEZ. According to the workers, the company has floated a severance package, as part of closing down its operations in the facility.

Earlier the company told employees that they have time till February 9 to decide on the offer, delaying which workers will receive a severance amount prescribed by labour laws in their bank account.

An email sent to the company for a comment on how many workers have opted for the package was not responded. Workers said that in a meeting on Monday morning, the company management said that it is its final decision to close down the plant and the workers can opt for the severance package.

"We have expressed our protest against the decision to the management. We are planning to intensify our protest further," said E Muthukumar, president of Foxconn India Employees Union. He said that the next round of tripartite meeting between the company management, Union and the government officials is to be held on February 11, after which it would start more agitation programmes.

The company has said workers would get two months' salary for every year of service with a cap of 12 months, along with a lump sum of Rs 50,000, three months of notice period pay, the promised 2014 bonus of Rs 8,300, and a service awarded component of Rs 2,000 for every five years served.

Workers who were earlier refusing the company's package and fighting for the factory to reopen and asking for jobs. No workers have so far applied for the package, he said.

Several rounds of talks between the Foxconn management, workers' union in front of the Deputy Labour Commissioner, Chennai, have failed.

In December, Foxconn informed its workers that it is suspending operations in the facility, situated near the Nokia facility, as there are no orders for it to run the plant.

The company, in a notice displayed at the boundary of the facility, said, "We are not able to give jobs to all the workers, since we don't have orders to give jobs. Since the management has declared a holiday for the factory, workers are asked not to come to the factory." It added the company is trying to find a solution through a dialogue and till that time the workers has to be patient and extend full co-operation.

FIH India Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Foxconn India Private Limited, in fact stopped operations at its factory at the Nokia Sriperumbudur SEZ near Chennai, two days before the announced date of December 24, triggering fears of massive lay-offs among workers.

One of Foxconn's key customer was Nokia, which suspended operations from November. Nokia's plant, which employed around 8,000 workers directly and another 21,000 indirectly, had to shut its plant following a tax dispute that prevented its transfer to Microsoft which bought the Finnish company's handset business early this year.