Electronics groups including Japan’s Canon and Innolux, an affiliate of Apple supplier Foxconn, have been accused of locking up migrant workers in Taiwan as an outbreak of Covid-19 hits the country’s tech industry.
The accusations highlight the labour practices used to sustain Taiwan’s position as a technology manufacturing powerhouse. The country is a linchpin of the chip industry — a position even more crucial as the world faces a semiconductor crunch.
According to internal documents and staff communications seen by the Financial Times, the companies, which also include Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) — a unit of the world’s largest chip packaging and testing house ASE — have forbidden migrant workers from leaving the dormitories where they live except to go to work.