Apple supplier Foxconn says it has quadrupled daily bonuses at a huge iPhone plant in China after an outbreak of workers during a Covid lockdown.
The company says bonuses for assembly line workers at its manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, central China, will be raised to 400 yuan ($54.90; £47.70) a day.
Over the weekend, video showed people jumping over a fence outside the plant.
Chinese and companies continue to struggle with President Xi Jinping’s rigid zero-Covid policy.
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Speaking on social media platform WeChat, Foxconn also said people who work more than 25 days a month at the world’s largest iPhone factory would get a maximum bonus of 5,000 yuan, instead of 1,500 yuan.
It added that those who “work hard” in November – without taking vacations – could receive a total bonus of more than 15,000 yuan for the month.
The company said the awards are part of an effort to “gradually resume orderly production” and “thank you for the perseverance of our colleagues”.
The lockdown comes at a critical time for Foxconn – which is now making the new iPhone 14 for Apple.
Taiwan-based Foxconn, which is a key supplier to US-based Apple, employs hundreds of thousands of workers at its Zhengzhou complex.
There is still no official count of how many people have been infected with the corona virus at the plant.
Last Wednesday, Foxconn said a “small number of employees” in Zhengzhou have been “affected by the pandemic” and will be provided with “material supplies, psychological comfort and responsive feedback.”
“Currently, epidemic prevention work in Zhengzhou is progressing steadily, and the impact on the group is controllable. The operational outlook for this quarter remains unchanged,” she added.
However, footage shared on Chinese social media and by the BBC’s China correspondent Stephen McDonnell showed workers were allegedly filmed fleeing the site for long walks back to their hometowns to avoid falling into public ones getting caught in transit.
A 22-year-old worker named Xia told the Financial Times it was “total chaos in the dormitories” where he and his colleagues were being held.
Workers also claimed that the area around the plant had been locked down for days, with Covid-positive workers being quarantined and tested daily to try to contain the outbreak.
On Sunday, Foxconn said it will no longer require workers at the plant to have their meals in their rooms “to improve the comfort and satisfaction of employees’ lives.”
It added that it was working with the local government to provide an “orderly point-to-point return service” for workers who wanted to go home.
Zhengzhou, a city of about 10 million people, has been in partial lockdown as authorities continue to enforce the country’s strict zero-Covid policy.
Other companies in China have been hit by coronavirus outbreaks in recent days.
On Wednesday, Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio confirmed it had halted production at two of its factories in the eastern city of Hefei, which would impact production and supplies.
Earlier this week, the company reported that it had delivered more than 10,000 vehicles in October.
The numbers are “limited by operational challenges at our plants and supply chain volatilities due to the Covid-19 situations in certain regions of China.”
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