Foxconn founder: suicides will stop
By Wang Xiang |
May 25, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE founder of Foxconn Terry Gou responded to the spate of eight suicides in its Shenzhen factory for the first time yesterday, saying he was confident of stopping the trend of tragedies.
Gou admitted it was hard to manage over 800,000 workers in Foxconn around the world, but his factories were "definitely not a sweatshop," China News Service reported.
Gou said the company has started working to change, but he would not discuss details.
Foxconn's Shenzhen factory started to play music on its assembly line yesterday to soothe work stress, following eight suicides and two attempted suicides among its workers this year.
The factory - described as a "hell factory" in media reports - said it will have a comprehensive plan to improve working conditions within a month, Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday.
As a part of the plan, the factory started to recruit more than 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers on Sunday to help its 400,000 workers relax.
The factory also plans to hire more psychiatrists to help its workers deal with stress.
In the meantime, new fences are being installed on every workers' dormitory building. The fences now rise up to 3 meters and are meant to prevent suicidal workers from jumping off, the report said.
But some workers told the newspaper that adding fences were only superficial and suicidal workers would surely find other ways to end their lives. They said the wire fence even added to their stress, making workers feel they were living in prison every day.
More than 400,000 workers live in the 3-square-kilometer factory area. According to media reports, the workers have to work through their days like a machine. Starting work at 4am every day, the workers repeat the same moves thousands of times.
One worker told Guangdong based Southern Weekend that he would deliberately drop something on the ground so that he could have a few seconds of rest when picking it up.
A Shenzhen Foxconn spokesman said after the ninth jumper killed himself that deeper social problems were to blame for the workers' deaths and the factory was not at fault.
Gou admitted it was hard to manage over 800,000 workers in Foxconn around the world, but his factories were "definitely not a sweatshop," China News Service reported.
Gou said the company has started working to change, but he would not discuss details.
Foxconn's Shenzhen factory started to play music on its assembly line yesterday to soothe work stress, following eight suicides and two attempted suicides among its workers this year.
The factory - described as a "hell factory" in media reports - said it will have a comprehensive plan to improve working conditions within a month, Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday.
As a part of the plan, the factory started to recruit more than 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers on Sunday to help its 400,000 workers relax.
The factory also plans to hire more psychiatrists to help its workers deal with stress.
In the meantime, new fences are being installed on every workers' dormitory building. The fences now rise up to 3 meters and are meant to prevent suicidal workers from jumping off, the report said.
But some workers told the newspaper that adding fences were only superficial and suicidal workers would surely find other ways to end their lives. They said the wire fence even added to their stress, making workers feel they were living in prison every day.
More than 400,000 workers live in the 3-square-kilometer factory area. According to media reports, the workers have to work through their days like a machine. Starting work at 4am every day, the workers repeat the same moves thousands of times.
One worker told Guangdong based Southern Weekend that he would deliberately drop something on the ground so that he could have a few seconds of rest when picking it up.
A Shenzhen Foxconn spokesman said after the ninth jumper killed himself that deeper social problems were to blame for the workers' deaths and the factory was not at fault.
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