Foxconn CEO vows to beef up safety
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Foxconn Technology Group's Chief Executive Officer, Terry Guo said Wednesday that Foxconn would introduce four measures to prevent suicides after a string of such deaths at the company's Shenzhen plant.
But just hours later, another employee died after falling from a building at the company's plant in south China's Shenzhen city, the 12th such incidence in 2010 that resulted in 10 deaths, the company said.
Two Foxconn employees had survived their suicide attempts but sustained severe injuries.
Guo said he felt sorry for the tragedies. "What I'm the most concerned with is to prevent the same tragedies from happening again," Guo said.
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President of Foxconn Terry Gou bows for apology after a string of suicides by the company's employees at a plant of Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, on May 26, 2010. |
Foxconn has been installing safety nets, covering 1.5 million square meters, around almost all the dormitories and factory buildings, he said.
"Although this seems like a 'dumb' measure, at least it could save life should anyone else fall," said Guo.
The company also had divided all employees into 4,000 groups, each with 50 members, to encourage communication and care within the group, Guo said.
Seventy psychiatrists have been invited to give counseling to the employees. "We are also training our employees to be volunteer counselors. More than 100 employees have taken the training and we hope the number can grow to 1,000 in a month," Guo said.
Since nine out of the first 11 suicidal employees were new recruits, who had worked in Foxconn for less than six months, Guo also initiated psychological tests for all the new-comers to track their psychological status.
"I can not guarantee that similar deaths will not happen again, but we are doing our utmost to look after and care more for our staff," said Guo.
Foxconn is part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and makes computers, game consoles and mobile phones for companies including Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp. and Nokia Corp.
Of Foxconn's 800,000 employees in China, 420,000 are based in Shenzhen. They work shifts and live inside the massive factory complex.
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