Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler This can't be true? Apple Fans Debunk Please

http://www.neowin.net/news/workers-in-apple-ipad-factories-forced-to-sign-anti-suicide-contracts

Anti-suicide contracts. Really?

weird... definitely seems like some kind of joke.

Next Apple ( Foxconn ) factory will be in Brazil. Since costs will be higher and labour laws are stricter don't think it will happen the same thing over there. I don't know about US working conditions but here in Japan there are factory workers who work 240 hours overtime ( 6 days a week, 8 hours overtime a day ). Rules here are being stricter now since there are many people suiciding and so on, so most factories can only allor 60 hours overtime a month. In case the workers need to work more than these 60 hours, medical evaluation is needed. Although there are people overworking still.

The only thing I'm debunking (since I don't know) is that Foxconn only makes stuff for Apple. Have look inside an HP server, it's full of Foxconn stuff.

Didn't Foxconn make stuff for Xbox 360s at one point?

I'm sure they did. They make stuff for a LOT of people.

I have some Foxconn undies.

Foxconn is a vendor for Apple, Nokia, Dell, Nintendo and HP. It wouldn't surprise me if MS is one as well. It will be interesting to see if this is just a Foxconn/Apple thing or if it is a practice they use with their other vendors as well. The bigger picture is how common of a practice is this in China manufacturing? I have never heard of this sort of crap before. This is a rather appalling excerpt from another article.

Factories making sought-after Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation has revealed.
At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves in the last 16 months as a result of horrendous working conditions.

Many more are believed to have either survived attempts or been stopped before trying at the Apple supplier's plants in Chengdu or Shenzen.

Appalling conditions: An investigation by two NGOs has found new workers at Foxconn factories in China are made to sign a 'no suicide' pledge
After a spate of suicides last year, managers at the factories ordered new staff to sign pledges that they would not attempt to kill themselves, according to researchers.

And they were made to promise that if they did, their families would only seek the legal minimum in damages.

An investigation of the 500,000 workers by the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) found appalling conditions in the factories.

They claimed that:

Excessive overtime was rife, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip showed a worker did 98 hours of overtime in one month, the Observer reported.

During peak periods of demand for the iPad, workers were made to take only one day off in 13.

Badly performing workers were humiliated in front of colleagues.
Workers are banned from talking and are made to stand up for their 12-hour shifts.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...it-suicide.html

Well, regarding the fact that the workers need to work standing it is like that in all factories that I know ( Sony, Canon, Epson, Sanyo and many others ). Since it is much faster to do the job standing than sitting. This is a common practice even here in Japan. So this is not something to be considered abusive IMO.