Foxconn has put up earnings among workers in China by an average 30 pct , but it says that the raise has nothing to do with a string of self-annihilation that some expert say global medium have misattributed to everything from poor make conditions to rapid modernization .
Foxconn has been mulling a earnings addition for months because merry global demand for computers and other gadgets has kept factories throughout southern China buzzing , a company example said , causing a shortage of skilled manual laborer . Some doer had already moved on to well paying companies .
Still , the suicides may have pushed up the clip frame of the raise . A bit of Foxconn ’s in high spirits profile customers , which admit Apple , Hewlett - Packard and Dell , have recently voice business concern .
Foxconn has been under ardour follow a chain of 13 self-destruction attempts by workers at its factory in China so far this class , resulting in 10 deaths .
The most recent was an apparent suicide try last week when a man slashed his wrists , according to a statement by police in Shenzhen .
But among the flurry of reports about Foxconn in the international spiritualist , one thing appears to have been missed : The suicide pace among the company ’s prole is well below the national average .
Between 2000 and 2006 , China average 15.05 self-annihilation - link up deaths per 100,000 people in the state , according to a Nov. 2008research paperpublished inThe Lancetmedical diary . The 10 deaths so far this class at Foxconn put it far below the home average regard it employ over 540,000 workers in China . The survey , of row , can not direct the specific stresses of exploit at Foxconn .
The suicide do not seem to have been due to any of the major gene featured in recent media stories , according to Michael Phillips , director of the suicide clinic at the Shanghai Mental Health Center .
The subject area says the suicide rate may have actually fallen due to modernization , because of ameliorate economical candidate for the misfortunate , as well as a move to cities where the most common method of self-annihilation , drink pesticide , is more difficult because it ’s not as readily available as in the countryside . At Foxconn , 12 of the suicide attempts have been leaps from tall construction .
Foxconn has stanchly defended its handling of workers and give press tours of its chief facility , the Longhua factory complex in Shenzhen , to show off summercater deftness , dormitory room and weather along yield lines . The company has also take steps to preclude further self-destruction , include call in Buddhist Thelonious Monk and head-shrinker to supply counsel , and install nets on edifice designed to overtake people attempting to jump .
The situation at Foxconn has cause other Formosan contract maker to take a severe smell at their operation in China as well .
“ We ’re very implicated about this situation at Foxconn , ” said Ray Chen , president and CEO of Compal Electronics , the world ’s second - gravid declaration manufacturer of laptop computer computers , during a press conference in Taipei . His companionship is looking into working conditions at its factory , but Compal has no plans to increase wage right now , he said . The company paid more than Foxconn prior to the felo-de-se yield becoming a global matter , Chen said .
Phillips indicate that one commodity that could derive out of the attention on Foxconn is a reincarnate effort to construct a self-destruction prevention scheme in China .
“ China has yet to develop a national scheme to take on suicide as a public - wellness problem , ” he tell .
The best way to handle the current situation at Foxconn would be to carry a careful written report of precisely what bechance , he state , including the importance of the influence surround , likely “ suicide clustering ” gist make by media attending and other rudimentary stresses or psychological problems that may have driven individual to take their life story .
