Foxconn employees secure raise
By Wang Xiang |
01:38 UTC+8 June 3, 2010
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WORKERS at Foxconn's factories on Chinese mainland have received a 30 percent pay raise after a spate of employee suicides this year.
Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn's parent, made the raise effective yesterday.
The monthly wage for the lowest-ranking assembly-line workers will increase from 900 yuan (US$131.76) to 1,200 yuan.
The pay rise for company officials will be announced later, according to the head office in Taiwan.
The firm said it hoped the wage lift world give its workers more free time and eased day-to-day pressures.
"With the pay raise, we hope workers won't need to work overtime as much and thus gain more time for leisure and have a happier working environment," a Foxconn official who requested anonymity told The Associated Press. "It may also help cut the turnover rate and raise productivity and product quality levels."
The basic salary for a normal worker in the Shenzhen factory was, until yesterday, 900 yuan, the minimum wage for the city. Workers had to work overtime of 120 to 140 hours every month to make ends meet.
The wage increase came after 10 suicides and three such attempts in Foxconn's Shenzhen plant in south China's Guangdong Province.
One worker in Foxconn's Langfang plant in northern China's Hebei Province also committed suicide this year. The string of tragedies attracted criticism that Foxconn was a "sweatshop" and its workers were toiling under rigid management.
The deaths have triggered investigations by Apple Inc and other big clients.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was quoted in the media yesterday as saying that Foxconn's factory in China "is not a sweatshop" and described workers' deaths as "troubling."
Foxconn is Apple's biggest component supplier.
The jump in workers' pay did have one minus - on the companies' stock prices.
Hon Hai's shares yesterday slipped 4 percent on the Taipei Stock Exchange to a nine-month low of NT$119.50 (US$3.70) in a broader market down 1.3 percent.
And shares in Foxconn, listed in Hong Kong, yesterday shed 1.54 percent to HK$5.76 (74 US cents).
Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn's parent, made the raise effective yesterday.
The monthly wage for the lowest-ranking assembly-line workers will increase from 900 yuan (US$131.76) to 1,200 yuan.
The pay rise for company officials will be announced later, according to the head office in Taiwan.
The firm said it hoped the wage lift world give its workers more free time and eased day-to-day pressures.
"With the pay raise, we hope workers won't need to work overtime as much and thus gain more time for leisure and have a happier working environment," a Foxconn official who requested anonymity told The Associated Press. "It may also help cut the turnover rate and raise productivity and product quality levels."
The basic salary for a normal worker in the Shenzhen factory was, until yesterday, 900 yuan, the minimum wage for the city. Workers had to work overtime of 120 to 140 hours every month to make ends meet.
The wage increase came after 10 suicides and three such attempts in Foxconn's Shenzhen plant in south China's Guangdong Province.
One worker in Foxconn's Langfang plant in northern China's Hebei Province also committed suicide this year. The string of tragedies attracted criticism that Foxconn was a "sweatshop" and its workers were toiling under rigid management.
The deaths have triggered investigations by Apple Inc and other big clients.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was quoted in the media yesterday as saying that Foxconn's factory in China "is not a sweatshop" and described workers' deaths as "troubling."
Foxconn is Apple's biggest component supplier.
The jump in workers' pay did have one minus - on the companies' stock prices.
Hon Hai's shares yesterday slipped 4 percent on the Taipei Stock Exchange to a nine-month low of NT$119.50 (US$3.70) in a broader market down 1.3 percent.
And shares in Foxconn, listed in Hong Kong, yesterday shed 1.54 percent to HK$5.76 (74 US cents).
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