When this apple fell on wistron’s head

When this apple fell on wistron’s head

When an apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head, while he sat lost in thought in a garden, in 1666, the law of gravitation dawned upon him. That might well be a nice little story. But it is hard fact that Apple choosing to come down like a tonne of bricks on its contract manufacturer, Wistron, for the labour malpractice that triggered worker violence at its plant in Karnataka has triggered an epiphany on labour norms and the need to comply with them, not just for Wistron but for Indian industry in general: if you want to be part of the globalised production process, you have to treat your workers right. No company wants its consumers to have their conscience weighed down by the poor conditions in which its vaunted product was put together.

It is worth noting that reports of poor working conditions and frequent worker suicides at some Apple vendors in China some six years ago had not triggered a reaction from the tech giant that involved stopping further orders till correction of the malpractice. India’s democracy and open society will allow information to flow and carry credibility, whether it is adverse or supportive. What is at work is not so much enlightenment at Apple HQ as the global shift towards ESG investing, that is, investment that takes into consideration environmental, social and governance practices. According to the US Sustainable Investment Foundation, ‘the total US-domiciled assets under management using sustainable investing strategies grew from $12.0 trillion at the start of 2018 to $17.1trillion at the start of 2020, an increase of 42%’. In other words, companies are under pressure from both consumers and providers of capital to prove their ESG credibility. That goes for attracting young, smart employees, as well. Indian producers and policymakers would do well to heed this.

Trade unions, too, have a lesson: foreign capital, instead of being the monster they often paint it to be, is useful for not only augmenting investment, job creation and growth, but for improving the quality of labour practices as well.