Miscellaneous » Because of brutal working conditions: MacBook manufacturer has to pay bonuses and earns less
Even in China, companies cannot let their employees work in poor conditions indefinitely without consequences. In the case of Quanta Computer, these are now having an effect on the balance sheet: the MacBook manufacturer had sent the employees in one of its largest plants into a kind of work hostage custody due to Corona – that hailed sales.
Apple’s customers only noticed the effects of the radical lockdowns in China indirectly, namely in the form of longer delivery times. This was particularly noticeable when ordering new Macs, with delivery times sometimes lasting months. The reason for this was that many factories in mainland China were at a standstill for weeks due to the Chinese authorities’ ruthless corona policy.
Quanta Computer, the main manufacturer of MacBooks, was hit particularly hard by the measures. Its most important factory is in Shanghai, where it has not been possible to produce for a long time.
Quanta has to pay high bonus payments and earns less
When production was able to restart, the authorities insisted on absurdly strict protective measures for isolation. Quanta and other manufacturers responded with the so-called closed-loop work plans. In plain language: Employees were not allowed to leave the factory, but had to spend the night in dormitories on the premises. In some cases, they were also denied access to rest rooms during breaks.
The result was violent riots in Quanta factories, Applepage.de reported. In order to recruit new employees and retain the remaining ones, Quanta had to make substantial provisions, reported the Bloomberg agency. These flowed into bonus payments for remaining employees and also for newly recruited employees.
At the same time, closed-loop operation increases costs and reduces profitability. As a result, Quanta’s profits plummeted by a whopping 50% in the past quarter. The delivery times for Macs are still sometimes long, but are now recovering noticeably.
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