Big pressure for not being allowed to chat at work? Two Foxconn employees jumped to death


http://www.orientaldaily.com.my/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=53430:2&Itemid=197

 01/05/2013

On April 24th, Zhengzhou Foxconn, a 24-year-old male worker jumped to his death in the dormitory, jumping for unknown reasons. Three days later, Ms. Jin, other woman workers in the same Zhengzhou Foxconn, jumped to her death from Fu Xin Apartment at 6 pm on Saturday April 27 and died on the spot.

According to the male deceased's brother, his younger brother was introduced by his classmate to enter Zhengzhou Foxconn to be a worker on April 21. He got an interview and physical examination on April 22 and joined Foxconn staff training on April 23.

According to some workers, until Monday night the Foxconn management of the factory has not yet contacted the family of the deceased. The family of the deceased started to pull up banners at the factory gate: "Return my son!”” Foxconn doesn't care when its employees jump off of buildings. Heaven won't forgive this!!!"

Wang Jiyue, a party secretary of a community service centre in the industrial park of Zhengzhou said the male worker did not sign a labor contract and not formally work at  Foxconn therefore he is not yet a worker for Foxconn. Wang Jiyue is responsible for dealing with the aftermath affairs.

Why workers commit suicides?

Starting from April, Foxconn Zhengzhou plant implement "silent mode" without prior notice. Some employees complained that they were not allowed to talk at work for more than 10 hours every day and this they were extremely depressed. For them working at Foxconn is just like being locked up in prison.

The factory rule also states; "except having a permit to leave work, no one is allowed to leave their work post for more than 15 minutes during working hours, otherwise it will be seen as absenteeism".

Foxconn set draconian rules because of Apple’s product recall
Some analysts pointed out that Foxconn forcefully applied the “silent mode” may be related to Apple’s recall of products which do not match with appearance of the product requirements and have dysfunctions. On April 16, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou personally stationed in Zhengzhou Park to do supervision and management.

Foxconn responded on Tuesday (April 30), the company is committed to the highest standards of health and safety for employees’ working environment. Employees can work at talk, "but like most of the business in the industry, due to the operation of our production lines and complex scale, we encourage employees to avoid non- work -related conversation during work, so to ensure that other people are not being interfered, especially those who operate with machinery."