Harsh working conditions at Foxconn fuel suicidal tendencies

The world's largest contract electronics maker, Foxconn, owned by Taiwan-based Hon Hai has been accused of forcing employees to work long hours for meager salaries, where workers have to work under extreme stressful conditions. Past employees have complained that the management enforces military-style discipline and the assembly lines move so fast that workers act more like robots than humans.

To be fair to the company, the pressure is not of its own making. Clients like Apple place their orders for millions of pieces, virtually at the eleventh hour in order to beat product counterfeiters.

When the iPod was launched, Foxconn was given just 30 days to deliver the entire shipment, forcing it to impose extremely high production quotas on individual employees. And, what did Foxconn gain by it? $13 per handset that Apple retails for $499.

Production workers put in 12 hours of work each day with one day off a week and have to put in 120 hours of overtime each month although the Chinese labour laws permit only 36 hours. Apple's acceptable "Code of Conduct" limit for overtime for its suppliers is set at 60 hours.

Employees are not allowed to talk to each other while at work and are fined and shouted at by managers if caught talking.

Shocked by the series of suicides, Chairman Terry Gou apologised and bowed before 300 local and foreign media and promised to take measures to stop them.