Foxconn announces second pay rise

iPhone manufactuerer Foxconn announces yet another pay rise - but is it all a bit 'too little, too late?'
iPhone manufactuerer Foxconn announces yet another pay rise - but is it all a bit 'too little, too late?'

Chinese Electronics manufacturer Foxconn has announced that its workers will receive a pay rise this coming October, providing that its workers meet certain conditions.

Foxconn has hit the headlines in Europe and the US recently due to a string of suicides at the company, which – amongst other things – manufacturers Apple's iPad and iPhone. Three more people have recently attempted to commit suicide at the factory yet have failed.

Wage against the machine

Foxconn announced last week that its wages would go up by 30 per cent. Following that, Foxconn's Shenzhen-based factory now claims that it will increase salaries by nearly 70 per cent by October, although workers will have to meet some conditions to get this pay rise.

Amazingly, Foxconn currently employs nearly 800,000 people in China. The company has now said that wages for production line employees at the Shenzhen plant would rise from 1,200 yuan (£122) per month to 2,000 yuan.

The company has now issued the following statement:

"While overtime work was always voluntary, this wage increase will reduce overtime work as a personal necessity."

Foxconn's founder and chairman, Terry Gou has added to this: "This wage increase has been instituted to safeguard the dignity of workers."

"Safeguard the dignity of workers" must be one of the most loaded phrases we've read this year.

Via BBC

Adam Hartley