What is Foxconn facing when hiring temporary workers with high salaries？
When the remuneration is constantly on the table, it is not difficult to see that Foxconn Zhengzhou Airport Port Area on the other side of the table hopes to attract workers immediately compared with the short-term increase in salary costs.
At present, it is the peak season of Foxconn orders in Zhengzhou, but due to the epidemic, there is a labor gap in the factory. A manufacturing veteran told China Newsweek that a product integration foundry like Foxconn has a relatively low degree of automation and relies heavily on manpower.
In late October, many workers who used to work in Zhengzhou Foxconn Airport chose to "walk home". How many people choose to leave, there is no accurate data disclosure yet. However, some labor agents and internal workers can intuitively feel that many people are leaving. Affected by this storm, some job seekers also expressed concern about the follow-up prevention and control.
At present, Zhengzhou Foxconn has introduced a recruitment policy of hourly employment at 30 yuan/hour. According to the latest standards, plus other bonuses, in the case of full attendance in the month, the salary can reach 10 thousand yuan. A person in charge inside Foxconn revealed that there is still a recruitment gap of about 100,000 people in the factory. According to Cailian, some areas in Henan require grassroots cadres to play a leading role and take the lead in going to work at Foxconn in Zhengzhou. Reward and "brave husband", both workers and enterprises are facing realistic considerations.
Lack of work is about 100 thousand
"For every two iPhone produced in the world, one comes from Foxconn in Zhengzhou". According to the data, as the world’s largest iPhone production base, Foxconn Zhengzhou Airport has more than 300,000 employees at its peak. Before the "Walking Home" incident, there were more than 200,000 employees in the factory. In July 2021, Wang Xue, deputy general manager of Foxconn Zhengzhou Science and Technology Park, said in an interview with the media that the airport area is the largest factory of Foxconn Group in Zhengzhou, with a total area of nearly 5.6 million square meters.
According to the feedback from many internal employees and the online recruitment information, in addition to the production line employees, logistics personnel such as cleaning also have employment needs. "There are still many isolated factories in the factory," worker Li Mu introduced to China Newsweek. As a regular employee, he always sticks to it in the factory.
On November 6, 2022, in the Foxconn Park in Zhengzhou, epidemic prevention personnel carried out environmental disinfection work. Figure/vision china
In order to retain employees and "save" returnees who have left their jobs, Zhengzhou Foxconn has repeatedly issued the "Attendance Incentive Plus Code Scheme". Taking the largest iDPBG business group in the factory as an example, the attendance subsidy was once increased from 50 yuan/day to 400 yuan/day.
According to the latest policy released on November 13th, new employees of iDPBG business group will be employed by dispatching hourly workers, and the salary will be calculated according to 30 yuan/hour from the date of employment, and those who leave their jobs less than 7 days after employment will be paid according to the salary of equal pay for equal work. Employees who enter isolation points in cities from November 9 to November 19 are entitled to four days’ isolation living allowance. If they have been on the job for 15 days, the subsidy standard shall be calculated according to 400 yuan/day, and if they are under 15 days, the subsidy standard shall be calculated according to 100 yuan/day. Employees who reported for duty from November 9 to November 19 are entitled to an additional 3,000 yuan job security allowance after 30 days on the job.
For employees who leave their jobs and return to their hometowns from October 10th to November 5th, they will be given a one-time care subsidy, 500 yuan. All the above are registered by local human resources institutions, agents, employment agencies and other unified organizations.
An insider of Foxconn told China Newsweek that firstly, job seekers should meet the local epidemic prevention requirements, enter the centralized isolation point organized by the recruitment place, and conduct closed-loop management for three days, during which they will be tested for nucleic acid once a day. Personnel who have completed the centralized health monitoring and management in the recruitment place shall be transported by the recruitment place in a centralized "point-to-point" manner, and the whole process shall be closed during the transportation. After the transportation is completed, the vehicles shall be disinfected in time. After the new employee arrives at the enterprise, the "landing inspection" procedure is strictly implemented, and the closed-loop management is separated from the old employee. Only when the nucleic acid test results are negative can they enter the factory.
Factory production is mostly in the off-peak season, which is a periodic flow of people, but it is blocked by the epidemic. Li Mu can feel that the factory where it is located is still not crowded.
The above-mentioned person in charge of Foxconn told China Newsweek that the entrants can work with simple training, and there are still about 100,000 people in the factory. Foxconn has conveyed the recruitment task to the labor cooperation agencies in many places, and basically achieved very little. Taking Taikang County of Zhoukou City as an example, Foxconn has put forward a recruitment target of 10,000 people, and at present, it has only attracted more than 2,000 people. He said that the factory also receives migrant workers from outside the province. At present, there are more recruits in Hubei, Hebei, Shaanxi and other places, but those from medium and high-risk areas cannot be arranged.
"Support" Foxconn
China Newsweek noted that from the official disclosure of Foxconn, the cooperation between government and enterprises is also a major feature of this recruitment.
According to the Cailian Association, some towns and villages in Henan Province have received the task of assisting Foxconn in Zhengzhou to recruit workers, and assigned the number of people to the towns and villages under their jurisdiction. In addition, some areas are required to play a leading role, and grassroots cadres take the lead in going to work in Foxconn, Zhengzhou, for a period of 1-6 months.
Just the number of workers in Foxconn Zhengzhou Airport Port Area is comparable to a county town. In the official tweet of Foxconn in Zhengzhou, the slogan "Rich prospers Henan, and Zheng needs you" was also played. In addition, some employees of other Foxconn factories, such as Kunshan, have also been transferred to Zhengzhou.
On November 13th, Zhengzhou Foxconn ushered in the first day of "peer-to-peer" recruitment and delivery in the province. According to local media reports, in the afternoon, buses arrived at the International Trade Recruitment Center of Foxconn Zhengzhou Science and Technology Park one after another, and "peer-to-peer" sent new employees from Xinxiang, Zhumadian, Xinyang and Luohe.
Song Xiangqing, vice president of Beijing Normal University’s Institute of Government Management, told China Newsweek that Henan has been hoping to create a good business environment in recent years. Now the government is focusing on serving the society, enterprises and residents, which is the embodiment of a new concept and the demand for attracting investment in the next step.
He said that because Foxconn is too big and needs too many employees, the government will do more. Because Foxconn has international influence and public attention is also high.
He believes that after Foxconn came to Henan, it has made outstanding contributions to Henan’s economic development, especially import and export trade, both in terms of scale and product grade. At the same time, Henan has also made great efforts for Foxconn to take root, providing an excellent production and operation environment, such as land use, employment, coordination and so on.
On November 15th, Lin Jing, who lives in a township in Yucheng, also received a registration inquiry. The village cadres went to her home. "At first, I was vague about the destination of the application, only that I could get more than 3,000 yuan after staying in Zhengzhou for ten days."
Although she has been unemployed at home for more than half a year, she still refused. She expressed concern. "If the epidemic situation is under control, can’t the current salary recruit people?"
The above-mentioned person in charge of Foxconn told China Newsweek that the epidemic prevention and control work in the factory area has achieved results. "The prevention and control problem is under the control of the government, and the epidemic situation has been relatively stable, and it will not recruit people if it is unstable."
It is worth noting that strict closed-loop operation is still being carried out inside the factory. According to the above-mentioned insiders, at present, closed-loop management is implemented between the park and the living area, "point-to-point" commuting, dining in different business groups, and commuting at different peaks.
"The night before yesterday, I went outside the factory to buy instant noodles to buy food. I came back at three o’clock in the middle of the night. The duty officer met me and thought I was running away. I drove the car and asked me directly with a horn." Li Mu said.
Xu Jie is a catering self-employed person near the factory. His Zhangzhuang is only over one kilometer away from Foxconn L District. Since the middle of last month, all the restaurants in Zhangzhuang have been shut down. So far, he has lived in his shop for a month. According to him, the local authorities have not specified the specific date of unsealing, only emphasizing that the silent management will be lifted after one week of clearing.
During this time, Xu Jie had almost no income. Because of his experience in human resources work, Xu Jie also promoted Foxconn’s recruitment announcement in his circle of friends. There are more than 1,000 Foxconn employees in his circle of friends. "Introducing an employee has an agency fee of 1000 yuan to 1,600 yuan, which can basically be obtained within one week."
But the response voice is very few. "Now there are many Foxconn employees in Zhangzhuang, and they haven’t gone to work for a month." Xu Jie said that his hometown is close to the airport, but many people have heard about the local situation. "Few people come for high wages."
Wang Ke, a labor agent in Xinxiang City, also feels that it is "difficult" to recruit. He and several employees of the company are recruiting people for Foxconn. "It’s good to recruit one in a few days now, basically all from other places," he said. There was no epidemic before, and at the same time, ten or eight people could be recruited in one day.
The above-mentioned person in charge of Foxconn told China Newsweek that there is basically no room for growth in the salary of Foxconn’s recruitment. "Generally, it is quite high to give 22 or 23 yuan an hour all over the country." He said that for labor agencies, "one or two people, three or five people, ten people and twenty people can come."
Worry and demand
On the one hand, job seekers are worried about epidemic control. On the other hand, Foxconn has an urgent need to return to normal production capacity.
On November 7, Apple made a statement on the supply of this year’s best-selling models iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. According to the statement, the current production capacity of Foxconn Zhengzhou factory has been greatly reduced, and the shipments of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be lower than expected. "Customers will have to wait longer to receive new products."
Take Apple’s Tmall flagship store as an example. Now it takes more than 40 days to place an order for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, regardless of color matching and storage capacity. The delivery time of Apple official website also takes 5-6 weeks.
Apple also said in the above statement that it is working closely with suppliers to restore normal production levels and ensure the health and safety of every worker.
As the year is approaching, Foxconn does not hesitate to hire temporary workers with high salaries. However, under the "bubble mode" of closed-loop management, the factory also needs to invest a lot of manpower and material resources for epidemic prevention and production.
The aforementioned Foxconn insiders told China Newsweek that Zhengzhou Comprehensive Insurance Zone implemented closed-loop management, taking shuttle buses to and from work point to point, regularly killing bacteria, testing all employees’ nucleic acid, distributing N95 masks and other epidemic prevention materials, and building a good epidemic prevention barrier.
He mentioned that the normal attendance employees in Zhengzhou Park were provided with three meals a day free of charge by the company, and the restaurants opened their meals one after another. In order to meet the shopping needs of employees, there is also a material supply point in the factory, and daily necessities and various diets can be purchased without leaving the factory.
"In order to ensure the health and safety of colleagues, the company has carried out all-round strengthening and improvement from three aspects: environmental safety, accommodation conditions and employee care." According to the insider, under the coordination and organization of the government, more than 2,000 environmental disinfection teams have rushed to Zhengzhou Park from all over the province, and have started all-round environmental disinfection work in the production and living areas to ensure the environmental safety of the park. Regional integration of on-the-job employees, centralized accommodation and closed-loop management. All other dormitory areas are clear, and a comprehensive upgrade is carried out. Start the grid management of life, set up the head of dormitory, the head of building and the head of floor, and solve the immediate problems of employees in the first line. Open 24-hour psychological counseling.
According to him, in order to ensure the epidemic prevention and health and safety of employees, Zhengzhou Park has also established an antigen rapid screening process system. Before employees arrive at their posts, they must conduct rapid screening self-test, upload the test results to the enterprise WeChat official account or APP platform, and enter the park with negative proof of antigen rapid screening; From November 4th, the whole staff began to collect nucleic acids, and 150 points were set up. More than 300 medical staff and thousands of volunteers were invested to carry out nucleic acid sampling, code scanning, tube transportation, tube transfer, data verification, on-site order maintenance, environmental disinfection and medical waste treatment, etc., to ensure that each link is efficient and safe. In combination with enterprise epidemic prevention and employee needs, actively raise emergency materials for epidemic prevention and build a safety barrier for the park.
"At the same time, the medical team organized by the government has also established medical service sites in the factory and dormitory areas to provide medical security for employees and try their best to meet everyone’s medical needs." The insider said.
(Li Mu, Lin Jing, Xu Jie and Wang Ke are pseudonyms in the text)