Another worker plummets to his death at Foxconn
Posted: 07/21/2011 9:37 am
The assembly line at Foxconn
Foxconn, the maker of all things Apple, Sony and Nokia among others, has been heavily criticized in recent months for workplace conditions, specifically at its Shenzhen plant in Longhua District. More than a dozen workers jumped from their dorm rooms last year, forcing Foxconn to improve workplace conditions and raise salaries.
But that doesn’t seem to have helped.
The Taipei Times notes that a 21-year old who had only been working at Foxconn for two weeks fell from his dormitory on Tuesday:
The company, meanwhile, has tried to contain the damage from the suspected suicide attempt by contending that the employee’s fall was not a result of work pressure.
Foxconn vice president Terry Cheng (程天縱) attributed the death to a possible accident, saying that the employee had only worked two hours of overtime since he joined the company.
“Based on my preliminary understanding, the employee was not a member of staff on the production line, but he worked in our research department,” Cheng told reporters in Taipei on Tuesday. “The employee was still on a training program and he had worked overtime for only two hours during the past 20 days, so we think that work pressure is irrelevant.”
He said that “prior to the accident, the employee had dined with 20 to 30 colleagues and they were likely drunk.”
Shanghaiist notes that claims of no overtime are spurious at best, considering who Foxconn’s clients are (*cough* Apple *cough*) and how the products it creates are in such high demand. Nonetheless, the series of suicides has not only hurt Foxconn’s reputation, but is one of the catalysts for the company’s move into Western China.
The exact number of deaths at Foxconn over the past two years are hard to pin down, with figures ranging from 13 to 16. You can get more info here.
