Unclear circumstances
The three suicides all happened at
the same plant in Zhengzhou, one of Foxconn’s largest factories. The victims
were a 24-year old man, a 23-year old woman and a 30-year old man.
Foxconn underlines that “an internal
investigation has shown that there is no evidence work related reasons were at
the foundation” and it emphasises that “experts who have investigated these
tragic events in the past, have pointed out that suicide is a complex matter
and that there never is just one clear reason”.
“The reasons for these building
jumpings are unclear”, says China Labor Watch, which has started an
investigation. The NGO, with headquarters in New York, does not exclude there’s
a connection with a new “policy at Zhengzhou in which workers are purportedly
threatened with termination if they talk on the job”. The authorities of the
Central Chinese province Henan have also started an investigation.
Bad reputation
The new incidents are very unwelcome
for Foxconn, now the company id bit by bit cleaning up its image.
Unions and organisations who work
with human and worker’s rights, have had their sights on Foxconn for some time.
The Taiwanese producer of electronics, which is subcontracted by Nokia, Sony,
HP and Apple, has a bad reputation since at least thirteen employees committed
suicide in 2010. Foxconn in China has about 1.2 million employees.
