Set again from a dusty freeway in South India, three newly accomplished manufacturing unit buildings stand up behind a black spiked iron fence. In their shadow, a number of yellow development automobiles sit beside mounds of upturned soil and the skeleton of a half-built warehouse. On a May afternoon this yr, a gaggle of ladies in blue and pink uniforms hurried from one constructing to a different over the din of site visitors and development.

This manufacturing unit complicated in Sriperumbudur, an industrial city in Tamil Nadu state, is certainly one of Apple’s most essential iPhone meeting hubs outdoors of China. It is operated by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing firm. Three occasions per day, the gates to this manufacturing unit open to swallow buses ferrying hundreds of employees—round three-quarters of them girls. These employees spend eight hours per day, six days per week, on a buzzing meeting line, soldering elements, turning screws, or working equipment. The manufacturing unit is without doubt one of the greatest iPhone vegetation in India, with some 17,000 staff who churn out 6 million iPhones yearly. And it’s quick increasing.

Most of the 232 million iPhones Apple offered in 2022 got here from factories in China, with lots of them originating from a single large Foxconn facility in Zhengzhou. But shifting geopolitical tides have just lately pressured Apple to re-evaluate its publicity to China. First got here the pandemic, when Beijing’s harsh lockdowns badly disrupted international provide chains. Now U.S. intelligence assessments, made public this yr, say that Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed his navy to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, and President Biden has stated the U.S. would defend Taiwan in that situation. A scorching conflict with China may have disastrous penalties, not just for the world, but in addition for Apple’s capacity to fabricate lots of the merchandise behind its $2.7 trillion enterprise.

And so the corporate is hedging its bets on India, a rustic shielded from China behind the world’s highest mountain vary, and residential to a younger inhabitants of 1.4 billion folks. In September 2022, Apple introduced the iPhone 14 could be assembled in India for the primary time. (Until then, the Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit dealt with solely older fashions.) In April of this yr, Apple CEO Tim Cook flew to India, the place he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pledged to take a position ever extra deeply within the nation, and personally opened two Apple Stores. Now, employees on the Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit are reportedly assembling the brand new iPhone 15, which went on sale in September.

Powering Apple’s pivot to India is Foxconn. By 2024, Foxconn hopes to almost quadruple its manufacturing at this South Indian manufacturing unit to twenty million iPhones per yr, and reportedly plans to rent tens of hundreds extra employees to make that attainable. Satellite photographs offered to TIME by Planet Labs present fast enlargement on the complicated, with three new manufacturing unit buildings constructed over the previous two years and newly damaged floor on area massive sufficient to accommodate not less than three extra. Apple may manufacture 25% of all iPhones in India by 2025, up from simply 5% in 2022, in line with a JPMorgan evaluation.

Satellite imagery courtesy of Planet Labs

This shift towards India has winners and losers. Foxconn has a history of low pay, harsh working situations, and exacting targets in its Chinese factories. And as Foxconn rushed into India to fulfill Apple’s demand, it created comparable situations there. In 2021, 159 manufacturing unit employees had been hospitalized with meals poisoning, as a result of consuming unhygienic meals at a subcontractor-provided hostel. That incident set off a wave of protests that, for a number of days, drew media attention to the squalid dwelling situations confronted by iPhone meeting employees. The hospitalizations had been adopted by a authorities inspection into the manufacturing unit—which has not beforehand been reported—that described quite a few security dangers and employees’-rights violations. That authorities inspection, carried out in December 2021, prompted Foxconn to spend $1.6 million on bettering well being and security within the manufacturing unit with oversight from Apple and the state authorities of Tamil Nadu, Foxconn stated in a press release to TIME. 

This story relies on an unreleased authorities doc reviewed by TIME, in addition to interviews this spring with 4 present employees and eight group organizers in and round Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit. All employees spoke on situation of anonymity, out of concern that chatting with the media would invite retaliation. “What we do in this factory is not what we studied for,” one feminine employee instructed TIME. “But it has become a matter of survival for our families.”

Apple declined TIME’s request for a reporter to be given a tour of the Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit for this story, and refused two requests to make a senior govt out there for an interview. Foxconn didn’t reply to related requests. In a press release, an Apple spokesperson stated that the problems on the Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit had been addressed after the food-poisoning incident, and added that common Apple audits have discovered that the situations within the manufacturing unit are frequently bettering. Foxconn stated the well being and security of its staff is “a top priority.”

An inspector calls

At 9 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2021, two days after the food-poisoning incident, a well being and security inspector from the Tamil Nadu state authorities turned up on the gates of the iPhone manufacturing unit in Sriperumbudur.

The inspection discovered that six employees whose job was to manually solder iPhone elements collectively “were not provided with protective equipment” together with security goggles, chemical-resistant gloves, or respirators, in line with a letter despatched by the federal government inspector to Foxconn, a duplicate of which was reviewed by TIME. In the areas of the manufacturing unit the place soldering was carried out, the inspection discovered, the air flow system was not ample to stop “the escape and spread of toxic fumes into the working environment.” That soldering course of, the letter stated, was “highly hazardous to the health of workers.” 

In one other a part of the manufacturing unit, the inspector discovered that employees “were not provided with suitable goggles to protect their eyes from the excessive light and infrared radiation.” He recognized 77 items of automated equipment that had been lacking essential “interlock” mechanisms on their doorways to stop operation below harmful situations, and 262 cases of lacking guards on urgent equipment. The lack of those protecting mechanisms, the letter stated, posed a danger of bodily harm. And six massive industrial ovens used to connect tiny electrical elements to iPhone circuit boards, the letter stated, had not been “tested by a competent person” earlier than manufacturing unit employees had been anticipated to make use of them.

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The inspection additionally discovered a number of obvious employment-law violations, in line with the letter. At least 11 employees within the manufacturing unit, it stated, had been required to work excessively excessive hours for the previous three months. At least 17 employees had been required to work on Sundays—often their solely weekly break day—with out being given a alternative day of go away inside three days. “All latrines and urinals in the factory were not maintained in clean and sanitary conditions at all times,” the letter stated, and particles was current on the bottom flooring of the manufacturing unit that introduced a security danger. The manufacturing unit supervisor had didn’t maintain a register of employees within the manufacturing unit or a register of their wages, the inspector claimed. And greater than 4,500 of the 6,126 employees within the manufacturing unit on the time of inspection had been allegedly employed not by Foxconn, however by 11 totally different subcontractors that weren’t legally registered with the Tamil Nadu directorate of commercial security and well being.

The letter means that the inspector discovered a number of violations of state regulation. The similar findings would additionally seemingly represent violations of Apple’s 127-page “supplier code of conduct” which—on paper—ensures the individuals who construct iPhones the precise to dignified work in a protected setting. This code says that Apple suppliers should present “safe working conditions” together with by offering private protecting tools, guaranteeing sufficient air flow, and sustaining correct security mechanisms on equipment. Any additional time should be voluntary, the doc says. Workers ought to obtain not less than someday off per seven days, it provides, and have entry to scrub rest room services. Apple doesn’t stop its contractors from utilizing third-party labor companies to produce employees, however says these companies should be legally registered. “Any violations of this Code may jeopardize a supplier’s business relationship with Apple up to and including termination,” Apple’s provider code of conduct states.

Employees work on an meeting line within the cell phone plant of Rising Stars Mobile India Pvt., a unit of Foxconn Technology Co., in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India, on Friday, July 12, 2019.

Karen Dias—Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Tamil Nadu inspector’s letter to Foxconn warned that “suitable action” could be taken in opposition to it inside seven days, until the corporate may clarify why it “should not be prosecuted for the irregularities found” throughout the inspection. TIME was not capable of affirm what measures, if any, the Tamil Nadu state authorities took within the aftermath of the letter. The Tamil Nadu directorate of commercial security and well being, which carried out the inspection, didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.

The day after the inspection, Foxconn closed the manufacturing unit. Shortly after, Apple despatched in a crew of unbiased auditors. But in public statements on the time, neither firm talked about {that a} authorities inspector had described a litany of failings inside the large manufacturing unit complicated. Instead, each Apple and Foxconn issued statements saying that they had been involved by the hygiene failures at off-site hostels, and that they might rapidly work to handle the situations there. The statements appeared that the primary danger to employees’ well being and security got here from hostels run by subcontractors—not from Foxconn’s very personal manufacturing unit flooring. The manufacturing unit remained closed for almost a month, and a phased reopening started on Jan. 12, 2022.

In their statements to TIME for this story, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged that an inspection happened on the manufacturing unit however didn’t touch upon particular findings. “We took measures and addressed every issue the government raised from its inspection,” a Foxconn spokesperson stated in a press release to TIME, with out specifying what these points had been. “The health and safety of our employees is a top priority for Foxconn.”

An Apple spokesperson additionally declined to touch upon particular findings. “The issues at Foxconn Sriperumbudur were investigated and addressed a year and a half ago and we placed the facility on probation,” the spokesperson stated in a press release to TIME in May. “During this period Foxconn invested in significant improvements and through quarterly, and at times weekly audits, Apple and independent auditors have tracked meaningful upgrades to the facility with frequent visits and employee interviews.” Apple-run surveys discovered worker satisfaction on the manufacturing unit to have elevated by 27% between August and December 2022, the spokesperson stated.

Life contained in the Foxconn manufacturing unit

Foxconn applied some constructive modifications within the months after the inspection, protests, and manufacturing unit closure, in line with three employees who spoke with TIME. Foxconn eliminated a rule that employees needed to dwell in subcontractor-provided hostels, and elevated employees’ salaries by 5,000 rupees ($60) per 30 days to cowl the prices related to renting lodging independently. Both the meals within the manufacturing unit’s canteen and the working situations on the manufacturing unit flooring have improved because the protests, the employees stated, whereas acknowledging that vital issues stay.

Since the manufacturing unit shut down and reopened, 4 present employees instructed TIME in May, it’s typically a safer place to work. The similar employees, nevertheless, complained of excessive manufacturing targets, in addition to a system of subcontracting that in impact creates a two-tier office the place a relatively small variety of Foxconn staff take pleasure in larger advantages and job safety than a legion of short-term employees, employed by third-party Indian subcontractors, who additionally work contained in the manufacturing unit. (Three of the present employees TIME spoke with had been employed through subcontractors; one was a Foxconn worker.)

While the employees TIME spoke to agreed that situations within the manufacturing unit had improved because the 2021 protests and subsequent inspection, additionally they stated that many issues persist. One drawback three employees talked about was their wages: starting from 82 to 101 rupees per hour for barely totally different roles contained in the manufacturing unit, equal to between $0.99 and $1.22 per hour. While such wages are more than double Tamil Nadu’s minimal wage for electronics employees, and nonetheless higher than the perils of unemployment or work in India’s huge casual sector, they provide employees little alternative to maneuver up the financial ladder, particularly since lots of them have kids and aged mother and father to help. “In the Indian context, this is not a terrible wage. It’s not a fair wage, but it doesn’t shock me,” says Ramapriya Gopalakrishnan, a labor lawyer primarily based within the close by metropolis of Chennai. To hire a room within the cities surrounding the manufacturing unit would price round one-third of a employee’s month-to-month paycheck, she says. “To support two kids in school on top of that, and support a mother and father, it would be very difficult.”

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Before the start of every every day shift at Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit, Foxconn managers announce manufacturing targets. Some days, in line with two assembly-line employees, the targets can require every employee to work on as many as 520 iPhones per hour—or one each seven seconds. At these charges, every employee on the manufacturing line may deal with some $4 million value of iPhones every single day.

Every employee on this meeting line has a delegated process. Some are specialists at attaching a selected part to the iPhone’s motherboard. Others have realized the exact finger actions essential to tighten a person screw. At common phases some employees carry out high quality checks, to verify nothing has gone improper as every cellphone barrels from one level alongside the meeting line to the subsequent. 

Meena, a contract employee on the manufacturing unit flooring, says she spends eight hours per day, six days per week, hunched over her station, fingers consistently in motion. “Some days, I don’t even get time to go to the restroom because I have to meet my production targets,” she says. “If the supervisor notices that products are piling up on the conveyor belt at my stage, he will reprimand me.” Her delicate process—the specifics of which, like her actual identify, TIME shouldn’t be revealing so as to defend her identification—causes ache in her fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and again, Meena says. If she alters her place to alleviate the ache—for instance by crossing her legs—a supervisor will usually trouble her to sit down correctly, she says. Foxconn permits employees going through well being points to take brief rests and supplies them with over-the-counter ache remedy, Meena says. But after her relaxation break, Meena says she remains to be anticipated to proceed at a demanding tempo for the remainder of the day. 

Meena shouldn’t be employed instantly by Foxconn. Instead, like lots of her colleagues within the manufacturing unit, she is employed by a third-party contractor. This system shouldn’t be distinctive to Foxconn, in line with Gopalakrishnan, the labor lawyer. It’s widespread within the Indian manufacturing sector, she says, as a result of it helps manufacturing unit house owners keep a versatile workforce to which they bear few authorized obligations. 

“Unlike fixed-term employees, these so-called contract laborers do not know even whether they can earn their livelihood beyond tomorrow—that is the degree of uncertainty we are talking about,” says Gopalakrishnan. “This whole contract labor system is designed to lower labor costs and evade responsibility for compliance with labor laws.”

At the Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit, contract employees don’t obtain sick go away or trip days, and aren’t given copies of their contracts, in line with three who spoke with TIME. Foxconn earlier this yr instituted a brand new coverage there, the employees stated, whereby if contract employees take go away on a consecutive Monday and Saturday, their month-to-month wage will likely be docked by 1,500 rupees ($18), the equal of a number of days’ pay. And if employees take three days of consecutive go away, their wage will likely be docked 5,000 rupees ($60), the employees stated.

This seems to explain extra violations of Apple’s provider code of conduct. Apple says within the doc that it holds its suppliers to the “highest standard” of labor. It particularly says that they have to not use wage deductions as a type of self-discipline, should not stop employees from taking lavatory breaks, and should take steps to mitigate “ergonomic hazards” together with painful postures and repetitive actions.

In statements to TIME, neither Foxconn nor Apple commented on the allegations of wage deductions, poorer situations for contract laborers, ergonomic hazards, or excessive manufacturing targets. “We work with relevant local agencies to ensure that all recruitment efforts follow Foxconn’s recruitment standards and guidelines, as well as local labor regulations,” a Foxconn spokesperson stated. “Foxconn communicates and cooperates with stakeholders, wherever we are, to continuously create an operating environment that is healthy and competitive, while protecting the rights and interest of our employees.”

“We have the highest standards in the industry for our suppliers and regularly assess their compliance to our code of conduct,” an Apple spokesperson stated. “With multiple feedback channels, including employee surveys and anonymous reporting, we are constantly looking for ways to raise the bar even further.”

An increasing system

Back on the perimeter of the Foxconn manufacturing unit complicated, previous the mounds of filth and the skeletal body of the half-constructed warehouse, past a safety hut manned by guards in white shirts, are two rows of what look like employee housing buildings. Both rows are 4 tales excessive and 100 meters lengthy, and lined with concrete balconies.

These buildings could also be a style of what’s to come back. With Apple eager to ramp up iPhone manufacturing in India, Foxconn is reportedly planning to construct big hostels for as many as 60,000 employees close to its Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit. Construction is at the moment below means on a big plot of land contained in the Foxconn complicated. As a outcome, employees on the manufacturing unit are involved that Foxconn could once more require its staff to dwell in company-run hostels, and will revoke the 5,000-rupee ($60) housing allowance that it at the moment pays its employees to cowl the price of their outdoors lodging, in line with three employees who spoke with TIME. (Foxconn declined to touch upon its plans.)

Meanwhile, the costliest iPhone 14 retails for $999. The most costly iPhone 15 retails at $1,099. While Apple doesn’t publicly disclose the distinction between an iPhone’s ultimate sale value and the way a lot it prices to supply, the corporate’s most up-to-date monetary results say that for each greenback of revenue from product gross sales, the corporate makes round 35¢ as revenue.

The 4 employees on the Sriperumbudur manufacturing unit who spoke to TIME stated that whereas it’s unlikely they might simply discover greater wages elsewhere, they nonetheless really feel they deserve higher. It would take the lowest-paid amongst them round six months to avoid wasting sufficient to purchase a single iPhone 15—and that’s if the employee by no means paid for hire, meals, or to help her household. “When I compare my salary to the cost of an iPhone, obviously they can pay me better,” one younger lady says.  

—With reporting by Barath Raj/Sriperumbudur and Varsha Bansal/Bengaluru

Write to Billy Perrigo at billy.perrigo@time.com.