Foxconn to Restart India IPhone Plant Shut by Labor Protests

For $Apple (AAPL.US)$ , the issue echoes a similar incident in India a year ago, where it placed another iPhone maker, Wistron Corp., on probation following riots over unpaid wages. Foxconn has pledged to revamp its Indian management team and operations in the wake of the Chennai protest, and the Tamil Nadu government said the company had agreed to expand living areas, upgrade bathing facilities and provide drinking water.

Apple’s most important assembly partner has grappled with labor issues in the past, particularly in China, where it makes most of the world’s iPhones among other devices from laptops to tablets and gaming consoles for major brands.

The Taiwanese company, China’s biggest employer of private labor, began a sweeping reform of its operations after a spate of suicides in 2010 exposed harsh living and working conditions for the hundreds of thousands of migrants it employs to put together gadgets for foreign corporations.