Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) statement regarding MSCI ESG Controversies Report

2022/12/02

CSR

Foxconn is fully in compliance with our Group’s Code of Conduct (CoC). It is clearly regulated in our Group’s CoC that “Forced, bonded (including debt bondage) or indentured labor, involuntary or exploitative prison labor, slavery or trafficking of persons is not permitted. This includes transporting, harboring, recruiting, transferring or receiving persons by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction or fraud for labor or services.”
The Group categorically refutes allegations of forced labor use in our operations.
This year, the Group has noted the August 2022 report by the UN OHCHR and there is no mention of Foxconn or related partners in the report.
After MSCI issued such ESG Controversies Report, the Group actively initiated a direct conversation with MSCI and we understand MSCI requires external, independent audit report which is publicly available for MSCI to review. Therefore, on November 18, the Company provided the abstract of Responsible Business Alliance (“RBA”) Closure Validated Audit Report (“Audit Report”) to MSCI. The Audit Report was conducted independently by credible third parties - Elevate Limited in May 2020. Among the conclusions related to allegations of forced labor issues, the following were found as verbatim in the Audit Report:

Any type of forced, involuntary or exploitative prison, indentured, bonded (including debt bondage), trafficked or slave labor is not used.
Adequate and effective policy and procedures are established ensuring that any form of forced, bonded, involuntary or exploitative prison, trafficked or slave labor is not used.
There are no unreasonable restrictions on the movement of workers and their access to basic liberties.

As for the other ongoing Controversies issues raised by MSCI, including temporary and dispatch worker’s working condition and wages disputes, we have made our response to such Controversies in our 2021 ESG Insight. The remedies were made to the extent that the Hengyang site where the temporary and dispatch worker’s dispute arose from was subsequently awarded RBA – “Factory of Choice” (FOC) Program One-Star Level, which demonstrated a high-level commitment to the RBA Code of Conduct. [p12]
Foxconn welcomes stakeholders and concerned parties to discuss with us, at any time, on any important issues. We believe that direct exchanges can contribute to transparency and accuracy on issues that are critical for the global community. We hope that going forward Foxconn will be provided the opportunity to respond to critical issues ahead of a report's release to allow for fair representation in the final assessment.