Taiwanese electronic components manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., whose trade name is Foxconn, announced on Saturday to raise workers’ wages by 16-25% in its factories.
Monthly earnings of workers in its factories in Shenzhen have been increased from 1800 to 2,500 yuan on 1 February, according to their performance. Foxconn, the No.1 global manufacturer of computer components for Apple, Sony and Nokia, employs millions of workers in China, about half in Shenzhen.
This decision comes as inspections by the organization of workers’ rights, Fair Labor Association, which began on Monday in Foxconn plants. The American IT giant Apple takes about working conditions “very seriously,” assured its CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday after the start of these inspections.
Increases of 70% after the wave of suicide in 2010
Accused for the deplorable conditions in its suppliers’ plants, the Californian computer group had announced in mid-January that it would open the factories of its suppliers to the organization and published a list of its subcontractors. The findings of the association will be published in early March on its website www.fairlabor.org. Further inspections will be conducted in the spring in the factories of Taiwanese subcontractors Quanta and Pegatron.
After a spate of suicides at its plants in 2010 – at least thirteen employees of the factory in Shenzhen – Foxconn had already increased wages by nearly 70% in Chinese factories, where the working conditions have been repeatedly denounced by organizations and independent human rights activists. Foxconn, which assembles iPhone and iPad in China, also announced to replace employees in certain positions with robots.