13 May, 2011A new report finds that Foxconn is failing to improve conditions of work at its electronics manufacturing factories in China following the series of worker suicides in 2010.
CHINA: A new report finds that Foxconn has failed to uphold its promises to improve conditions at its factories in China following the series of worker suicides that hit the headlines in the first half of 2010.
The report released on May 6, Foxconn and Apple Fail to Fulfill Promises: Predicaments of Workers after the Suicides, documents how workers continue to be subjected to low pay, excessive overtime and inadequate health and safety and remain without effective means to handle workplace grievances.
Foxconn a Taiwanese owned subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industries Ltd., is the world's leading electronics manufacturer and currently has a workforce of a million workers all over China. A number of Foxconn's customers, notably Apple, HP and Dell, pledged to "work with Foxconn" to live up to higher international labour standards.
Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) prepared this report on working conditions at Foxconn operations in China after its researchers visited two Foxconn production facilities in Chengdu and Chongqing municipality in Western China, where the company manufactures Apple iPad 2 and HP laptops. SACOM researchers also revisited Foxconn's flagship plants in two industrial towns, Longhua and Guanlan in the Shenzhen, where employees are still housed in dormitories surrounding with anti-suicide nets.
While Apple commends the measures taken by Foxconn to improve working conditions, SACOM found that the predicament of workers remain. According to the workers interviewed, they continue to work excessive and forced overtime in order to gain a higher wage. Workers are exposed to dust from construction site and shop floor without adequate protection and are threatened by potential harm of occupational diseases in various departments. Additionally, military-styled management is still in practice, characterized by "military training" for new workers.
SACOM reports that throughout the investigation, when researchers asked about the feeling of Foxconn workers about the hardship of workers, like low wages, potential harm of occupational diseases, work pressure and exhaustion, the typical answer is "I get used to that" and that the workers feel it is helpless to try and seek changes.
"Foxconn is responsible for the labour rights abuses documented in this SACOM report. But its clients, including Apple and HP, also have indispensible obligations to ensure international labour standards are met in their supply chains," said IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina.
The report can be found at: http://sacom.hk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/2011-05-06_foxconn-and-apple-fail-to-fulfill-promises1.pdf