By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s powerful human rights watchdog has admonished labor officials for failing to adequately investigate evidence of employment discrimination in Foxconn (SS:), which makes Apple (NASDAQ:) iPhones, and told them to re-examine the matter, the documents show.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in June ordered federal and Tamil Nadu state officials to investigate Foxconn’s hiring practices, after a Reuters investigation found the manufacturer had excluded married woman in iPhone assembly jobs at a plant in southern India. Foxconn relaxed the ban during peak production, Reuters found.

The iPhone factory is a major foreign investment in India, central to Apple and Foxconn’s plans to grow manufacturing in the country, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim to compete with China in electronics production.

Indian labor officials visited the Foxconn plant in July and questioned executives about employment practices, but did not make their findings public.

Reuters this month reviewed NHRC case files related to the investigation after the news agency sought the records under India’s Right to Information laws. Details have not been previously reported.

An undated document on the status of the NHRC case shows that Tamil Nadu labor officials told the commission on July 5 that 6.7% of the 33,360 women working at the Foxconn plant were married, without specifying whether they are on the assembly line. They said the women who work at the factory come from six districts, “which makes it clear that many female employees are hired by the company … without discrimination.”

Federal investigators told the commission they interviewed 21 married women at the factory, who said they did not face discrimination in pay and promotions, according to the document.

In response, the NHRC told labor officials in November that they had not reviewed Foxconn’s hiring documents, nor addressed the primary issue of discrimination against married women in recruitment. The officers relied on the current testimonies of the employees and “filed their reports in a routine/casual manner,” according to the details of the case.

“The presence of (a) few number of female employees so far does not answer the question (of) whether the company is actually discriminating against married women during recruitment,” the NHRC said, saying that labor officials are “conspicuously silent on this matter.”

“The commission has no hesitation in saying that the authorities concerned have failed to recognize and understand the core issue.”

Neither the state nor federal labor departments responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on the NHRC assessment. In calling for investigations in June, Modi’s government said India’s Equal Remuneration Act stipulates that there should be no discrimination in the recruitment of men and women.

Apple and Foxconn also did not respond to questions about the letter. Both companies have previously said that Foxconn hires married women in India.

The NHRC is a statutory body with powers similar to a civil court. It can investigate human rights violations, summon officials and recommend remedial actions, including compensation payments.

Last year, the watchdog asked India’s federal labor department to look into reports of dire working conditions at an Amazon (NASDAQ: ) warehouse near New Delhi. Amazon subsequently said it was conducting an investigation and taking remedial action.

In the case of Foxconn, NHRC files show that the agency expressed its dissatisfaction with government officials on November 19, and ordered them to re-examine the matter by conducting “a thorough investigation” within four weeks.

The NHRC in its January 10 response to Reuters said it could not provide more information while the case is ongoing.

The Reuters investigation into Foxconn’s hiring practices was based on interviews with current and former executives, recruiting agents and job candidates, and a review of job advertisements circulated by vendors that hiring helping to recruit smartphone assembly workers in India.

Several ads posted between January 2023 and May 2024 stated that only unmarried women of a certain age were eligible for smartphone assembly roles, violating anti-discrimination policies of Apple and Foxconn.

Reuters reported in November that Foxconn ordered recruiters to remove age, gender and marital status from job ads.