In September 2010, Cividep (India) published a report raising concerns about working conditions in mobile phone manufacturing plants at the Nokia campus of the Telecom Special Economic Zone in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai: "Changing Industrial Relations in India's Mobile Phone Manufacturing Industry". The report draws on interviews with workers at Nokia's assembly plant and at six of Nokia's suppliers based there:  Flextronics, Foxconn, Laird, Perlos, Salcomp and Wintek.  The findings appear in the "Employment, Workers, and Labour Standards" section of the report (pp 22-30).

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited the following companies whose practices were most criticised in the report to respond:  Nokia, Foxconn, Laird, and Wintek.  In February 2011 Cividep and its Dutch partner SOMO sent rejoinders to Nokia and Foxconn and both those companies sent follow-up statements.  All the correspondence is below.

Nokia response[DOC]   Cividep/SOMO rejoinder to Nokia [DOC]   Nokia follow-up [DOC]

Foxconn response [DOC]  Cividep/SOMO rejoinder to Foxconn [DOC]   Foxconn follow-up  [DOC]
Laird declined to respond

Wintek has not responded

We also alerted Flextronics, Perlos, and Salcomp of our plan to post the Cividep report on this website.  All three companies sent us comments, then in February 2011 Cividep and its Dutch partner SOMO sent rejoinders:

[DOC] Flextronics  Cividep/SOMO rejoinder to Flextronics [DOC]   Flextronics follow-up  [DOC]

[DOC] Perlos  Cividep/SOMO rejoinder to Perlos [DOC]

[PDF] Salcomp   Cividep/SOMO rejoinder to Salcomp [DOC]

We also invited BYD and Foxconn to respond to these two related items from the International Metalworkers Federation:

"BYD Electronics in Chennai resorts to mass dismissals", 2 Nov 2010 

BYD declined to respond

"Foxconn union leaders released, but keep up the pressure!", 2 Nov 2010

See above for Foxconn's response