Tenth worker dies at iPhone maker Foxconn


25 May 2010

A tenth worker in a Chinese factory which manufactures, amongst other tech products, the Apple iPhone, has died after falling from a high building – the latest in a series of deaths at the same plant.

It is not know if the death of the Foxconn Technology Group worker was an accident, a suspicious incident or a suicide.

Foxconn, founded in 1988 in southern China, manufacturers most of Apple’s iPhones and iPods, as well as devices for other multinational technology firms, including Sony, Dell and Nokia.

Nine people have so far died from falling off the high roof of the Foxconn plant this year and two people have been seriously injured.

With a workforce of more than 400,000, who are aged mostly between 18 and 24, and with workers living and working on the same premises with on-site dormitories housed beside the offices and manufacturing plants, there have been employee reports of long hours, low wages and much overtime at Foxconn.

Quoted in the Financial Times, 22-year-old logistics worker Lü Pengguo, said: “The monotonous work I do here is not in line with my idea of life, it doesn’t make any sense. My dad says I should keep the job. But as soon as I find something better, I’ll leave.”

Photo: Foxconn Technology Group is the main manufacture of the Apple iPod

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com