Now hiring: workers at the world’s biggest iPhone factories.

Tibetans and Uyghurs need not apply.

The exclusion of ethnic minority job seekers was openly stated by a recruiting agency for Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier, in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

In response to an inquiry from Inkstone, Foxconn said on Friday that it had begun an investigation into the agency and vowed to help end discriminatory hiring.

“It has come to our attention that an unauthorized recruitment agency may be using our name illegally for recruitment purposes and without Foxconn approval,” the company said in a statement to Inkstone.

“We immediately alerted local government officials to this possible illicit activity and an investigation into the recruitment agency in question is underway.”

The job posting is open to those aged 16-40 with at least a ninth-grade diploma. No Tibetan and Uyghur ethnicities need apply. 

The hiring practice of the agency, Li Zhong Human Resources, is just one of many instances of ethnic discrimination in China that experts and labor advocates say are prevalent in the country.

And Foxconn’s vow to enforce a code of conduct on its suppliers and to sever business ties with those failing to abide by it speaks to industry leaders’ power in eliminating workplace discrimination – if they want to.

“Apple and Foxconn have a corporate social responsibility to reduce all forms of discriminatory hiring, whether it is on an ethnic or gender basis, or the like,” said Reza Hasmath, professor in political science at the University of Alberta.

“This responsibility also extends to their supply chain partners and recruitment agencies.”

Source: inkstonenews