INTERNATIONAL: Apple has announced on Wednesday it had placed its iPhone assembler Foxconn's plant in southern India on probation after both companies found that some remote dormitories and dining rooms used for employees did not meet required standards.

Apple did not detail what being on probation meant. When it placed the southern India plant of another supplier, Wistron Corp, on probation after unrest last year, it said it would not award the Taiwanese company new business until it addressed the way workers were treated.

The latest action comes on the heels of protests that has erupted earlier this month after more than 250 women who work at the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur town, near the southern city of Chennai, and live in one of the dormitories, had to be treated for food poisoning.

The plant, which employs some 17,000 people, was closed on December 18. Apple and Foxconn did not say when they expected it to reopen.

^{PHOTO: EXTERIOR OF FOXCONN FACTORY / FILE FOOTAGE OF FOXCONN FACTORY / AREA OUTSIDE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE (SEZ) HOUSING FOXCONN FACTORY / VEHICLE COMING OUT OF SEZ}