TAIPEI – Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry plans to raise workers’ salaries by about 20 percent at its Foxconn unit in China, as it struggles to stop a spate of worker suicides and quell rising public anger.
At least 400,000 workers who manufacture electronic devices for giants such as HP, Dell, and Apple, the management announced it plans to raise workers’ salaries by 20%.
“It may help the suicide situation, because we workers just need money and the financial pressure on us is great,” said a Foxconn employee surnamed Wang, reached by telephone at the company’s factory in Longhua, an industrial town north of Shenzhen. “Every little bit helps.”
The spate of deaths has thrown a spotlight on the labor practices of Foxconn, whose clients include Dell Inc, Hewlett Packard Co and Sony Ericsson.
Apple and other clients have said they are investigating working conditions at Foxconn, which has about 420,000 employees at its base in Shenzhen and has come under fire for its secretive corporate culture.
