Foxconn chief defends India hiring amid investigation after report, Reuters says

Foxconn’s (HNHPF) chairman on Saturday defended its hiring practices after New Delhi ordered investigations following a Reuters report that the Apple (AAPL) supplier rejects married women from iPhone assembly jobs, Reuters’ Praveen Paramasivam reports. “Foxconn hires regardless of gender, but women make up a big part of our workforce here,” Young Liu said during the opening ceremony for a hostel complex for its workers near Chennai in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. “I emphasize married women greatly contribute to the efforts of what we’re doing here,” he added, making his first comments since the Reuters investigation. The Reuters investigation published in June found that Foxconn systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts.