Foxconn ceases compensation in bid to end staff suicides
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Foxconn, a world-leading electronics manufacturer, said on Tuesday that it would no longer offer financial compensation to families of employees of its south China factory who commit suicide.
Foxconn, hit by a series of staff suicides this year, said the move was to prevent employees from killing themselves in order to receive a large cash compensation for their families.
Ten Foxconn employees in China fell to their deaths so far this year. Further, two other employees were injured when they also attempted suicide by jumping off the buildings. Most of the victims' families received compensation amounting to more than 100,000 yuan (14,662 U.S. dollars).
Though many of the victims came from China's impoverished countryside and were said to have become depressed at the time of the tragedies, no independent source has disclosed whether any employee had, in fact, sought to commit suicide so their families might receive company compensation.
However, Foxconn officials have said they have "concrete evidence" that some of its suicidal employees jumped for that financial concern, according to posters seen in busy areas in Foxconn's Shenzhen complex.
"The act is wrong. Life is precious. To prevent such tragedies, Foxconn is to cease releasing compensation other than that provided by law," the poster says.
To stem the dramatic suicide trend, on Sunday the company announced it would raise salaries for assembly workers at the Shenzhen plant by 66 percent to 2,000 yuan (293.3 U.S. dollars) per month as of Oct. 1. But it is not immediately clear how many of the company's 400,000 Chinese mainland workforce would benefit from this wage hike.
Foxconn, whose parent company is the Taiwan-based Hon Hai Group, is a major supplier to Apple, Sony and Nokia.
During the past few days, angry protesters have rallied on the streets of Hong Kong and Taiwan to boycott Apple iphones, claiming Foxconn factory employees must endure sweatshop-like working conditions, an allegation repeatedly denied by Foxconn management.
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