Foxconn CEO Says, ''We Are Not a Sweatshop''

[JMcEntegart]

With a surge of suicides dragging the company's policies and working environment into the spotlight once again, Foxconn is eager to convince the world that whatever the reason for the suicide cluster, employment conditions are not to blame.

Foxconn CEO Says, ''We Are Not a Sweatshop'' : Read more

 

[climber]

This is not the news bite you want to have to defend against...

 

[Trueno07]

Keep telling yourself that CEO.

 

[polly the parrot]

Sure you aren't. And the sky isn't blue either.

 

[sliem]

"without overtime, you can hardly make a living"
That itself is wrong. Unfortunately that's just the way it is over there.

 

[athreex]

Come Foxconn, you should change that slogan:

"Advancing through Innovation"

should change to

"Advancing through the tears of our workers"

 

[wintermint]

Wonder what will the people that offed themselves say to this...

 

[pyroghozt]

Really? I was quite well under the impression that the Foxcon employees had a certain amount of work they had to do in a day and if they didn't finish they would stay till late to finish it. And if they don't manage to finish at all they are held financially responsible.

I was also well under the impression that the people committing suicide are young people around their early 20s who are poor and just starting out.I also here there is a clause in their contract stating that they are no longer responsible for debts to the company if they commit suicide.

I hear the reason people are committing suicide is because they are poor and don't want to pay or make their families pay because in some instances they are the sole or one of the only providers for an entire poor family.

There are obviously a lot of cultural influences as well as the concept of shame brought on ones family for instance in this situation.

But it does seem to me that the problem is caused by very corrupt corporate policies, stress and certain cultural issues as well.

Somehow saying that you have x employees and can't look after all of them and that you are bringing in 50 councilors to help seems to merely be "damage control" on a situation you caused in the first place.

You can play the "Pontius Pilate" card if you want and wash your hands claiming to be ignorant of the situation, but that doesn't bring 11 people back from their graves does it.

 

[omnimodis78]

Haha - "... It's very difficult to manage a manufacturing team of 800,000 something," - - say what???? "800,000 something"? You think a CEO would be able to quote a closer-to-the-mark payroll number. Now this might not seem like a big deal to most, but the point is that obviously he isn't really all that informed about his human resources if he can't give a better number than that.

 

[matt_b]

Right.....your employees just have incredibly low self-esteem for no apparent reason. Those that have passed (although acceptable in numbers by their standards), just hated their personal lives but honestly loved their jobs!

 

[omnimodis78]

Jesus Lord - take a look at their "interview tips" page on their website ( http://www.foxconn.com/interviewTips.html) - I am sure that getting an audience with Queen Elizabeth II doesn't come with such a lenghty list. I feel really bad for these poor souls, I think I would hang myself (no disrespect meant) before I even got to the interview. :s

 

[truehighroller]

Slave drivers, period.

 

[j51]

''We Are Not a Sweatshop''...

hmmm.. it depends.... from US/Europe point of view... yes you are!

However if we look at it from developing countries' point of view... you are probably ok...

and from an undeveloped country's point of view... you are very good!

well... it all depends on your point of view...

I guess my point of view is pretty different from his (the CEO) point of view....

 

[j51]

By the way... just saw a news... they said... for the pay and the work environment... Foxconn is not really a sweatshop... at least by Chinese standard... However, for the stress and pressure they have there... Foxconn is definitely a sweatshop mentally...

hmm... I am kind of agree with that...

by the way... talking about the mental sweatshop... I heard the suicide rate is way higher in wall street than Foxconn..

can we call wall street a mental sweatshop too?..

lol

 

[Guest]

The country government is to be blamed for shoddy manpower laws as a result companies can exploit the people.

 

[samwelaye]

okay, IF foxconn were to pay their employees good wages and give them regular hours, theyed go out of business. The price of computer components would go so high in order to be able to pay the wages that people would simply stop buying

 

[intelliclint]

More interesting is look at what your buying. Dell, HP, Apple, IBM, Gateway use parts, more in laptops and smaller devices, that Foxconn makes. The fan assembly and speakers in the laptop I am typing on are Foxconn products sold to HP. This, and other companies like them, have allowed for the price drops in product by providing labor at prices no one else can match.

Great for the buyer, assuming the buyer can still buy because he has lost his job. Not saying this doesn't make profits for business, but it lack social responsibility.

 

[JonnyDough]

If I was guilty of something I might say I wasn't too.

This is what happens when capitalism meets desperation. Slavery. Kinda makes you hope that 2012 doesn't bring the end of the world, just the end of the times.

 

[bin1127]

Get off their backs! Foxconn just hired 50 councillors to help their 900,000 employees. What more are you asking for?

Hey, and the workers are dying for more overtime cause the regular wages Foxconn pays can't even feed their families. So more work = more pay. case closed. Good job FC.

 

[amnotanoobie]

This is only making the headlines as there was an Apple related suicide before. Surely there are far worse factories out there, but Foxconn just got the spotlight for now.

 

[ta152h]

I can see people love to get on their soapboxes and proclaim how horrible things are, even though everyone has done this anyway.

Clearly, it's not the greatest place in the world to work, but to say the company is responsible for people killing themselves is idiotic. They can quit, work someplace else, etc... There are 800,000 people that aren't killing themselves too, so let's keep it in perspective. People who kill themselves should take responsibility for their actions. There are a lot of things in life to be miserable from, not just work. A bad job could certainly fuel it, but it's not often the main reason. China has a very high suicide rate, around 300,000 a year, which keeps these suicides in perspective.

Also ask yourself, how many people might commit suicide were they unable to work for Foxconn? Consider the very high suicide rate in China when formulating your opinion.

Considering they are in China, I'm guessing more people die from other work related causes than suicide - it's not like they've got high safety standards.

 

[Guest]

Some facts:
Foxconn employees in the LongHua complex: ~400,000
Suicides in the past year: 10
Suicide rate (per 100,000): 2.5 / 100,000

Suicide rate of China (1999): 14 / 100,000
Suicide rate of Japan (1999): 25.3 / 100,000
Suicide rate of USA (1999): 10.8 / 100,000
Suicide rate of Canada (1998): 12.3 / 100,000
Suicide rate of UK (1999): 7.6 / 100,000
Suicide rate of Sweden (1999): 13.9 / 100,000
(source: http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/)

Typical salary for a new entry level employee in Foxconn: ~US$160
Boarding and meals: Provided by the company
Work hours: 6 days a week, 12 hours a day inclusive of 2 hours of meal time and 2 hours of paid overtime
Typical employee profile: young people from inner China, with low education level
Typical salary if they stay at home: US$80-100 (if they can find a job at all)

Facts provided. Feel free to make your own conclusions.

 

[crinky]

I would like to say allot of bad stuff about the company i work for, but i guess it's not comparable to this.

 

[Guest]

Even as a string of worker related suicides happened lately in Foxconn thousands of people line up outside its factories each day to apply for factory jobs. It is a Taiwanese company with huge factories in China. The company has been criticized for its near military style management but otherwise is known to pay above average wage with additional benefits including free air-conditioned dormitories and cafeteria meals that many other companies don't offer. You may also criticize the overtime work but the fact is this is very common in these Chinese factories. A senior executive of another company with factories in China told me that most workers actually desire overtime. They come from distant farmlands of poor provinces and their sole purpose is to earn enough money for a few years then return home for good. These suicides certainly reflect a general social problem in China. Recently there were also a string of deadly school-children attacks committed by sick people. Seem to be some unfortunate copycat incidents at play here.

 

[lightmeup]

Guys, I see differently about the what is happening in foxconn.

I am Chinese, and I am working in China now.

China is developing, still a developing country in many aspects.

The law is not well considered to protect the weak in many ways. The government is working on to make China a better country. but before we are "better", there will be tragedies. We Chinese do not make much money like you guys in States, and also services we can get in China can not be anywhere like what you can get in States. You have Work Unions, we have that too, but the union we have is to afraid to say anything or do anything to protect the workers. the power is not in their hand.

Yes, by killing themselves does not solve any real problems, but they did grab the attention of the world that the a company should pay more attention on their employees, they are people not machines.

Hopefully, Apple, Dell and HP can do something good for about the policy & process of outsourcing & OEM partners. lower the cost to make their product more competitive is one thing, doing the right thing is also a must, other wise, what would be the difference between them and Nazi?

Hopefully also the Chinese government can also start reviewing the labor law to ensure a healty ecosystem for the whole country.