Monday, May 24, 2010

New death hits iPhones factory

A worker at a huge Chinese factory which makes iPhones and iPads has fallen to his death - the eighth fatality this year at the world's largest contract maker of electronics. Skip related content

The previous deaths at the Foxconn Technology Group plant in the southern boom town of Shenzhen were deemed suicides, but it was not immediately clear what caused the most recent one.

The worker was identified as Nan Gang, 21, according to reports.

The death will raise more questions about working conditions at Foxconn's massive complex, which labour activists allege has a long history of mistreatment of workers.

They claim the 300,000 employees are pushed hard, toil under tremendous pressure and face harsh discipline for making mistakes.

There was no immediate comment about the death from Foxconn, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry group. The corporate behemoth has also produced computers for Hewlett-Packard, PlayStation consoles for Sony and mobile phones for Nokia.

After a suicide earlier this month, Foxconn said its workers enjoyed world-class treatment, including social responsibility programmes to ensure their welfare.

Recent suicides include a 24-year-old factory worker who jumped from a building inside the factory complex earlier this month.

The highest-profile death happened last July when Sun Danyong, 25, jumped to his death after being interrogated over a missing iPhone prototype. Mr Sun was responsible for sending the device to US-based Apple.

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