Salary hikes are not the answer; Foxconn needs a management overhaul
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Last Sunday, IT contract manufacturer Foxconn announced a further salary hike for workers at its Shenzhen factories, on top of the increase it had promised three days before. The hike will not take effect until October. When it does, workers will see their basic salary rise to around 2,000 yuan per month (US$293.3).
The wage hike is the result of the mounting pressure from public opinion. Foxconn is desperate to mend its tarnished image. But just raising wages is not the solution to the firm's problems. It will not help get to the bottom of the murky problems that caused 10 young workers to plunge to their death.
Right now it is time for Foxconn to acknowledge that it is not just low wages, but the company's harsh management style, that helped push some of its young workers to a tragic end.
Several workers we talked to told us that they and their colleges feel continually depressed. They have to follow strict orders all day long. Countless repetitions of the same movements on the production lines leave them exhausted at the end of their shifts. Verbal abuse rains down on them if they make a mistake. Some have even been beaten up by security guards.
Dormitory arrangements atomize workers. According to the workers we interviewed, the company makes sure workers from the same workshop are distributed around different rooms. Workers have no say in where they live. Long hours and exhaustion mean they communicate little with the people they share with.
Sometimes they do not even know their roommates' names. When troubles hit them, these workers, thousands of miles from home, have neither family nor friends to turn to and some of them, sadly, went to the extreme of killing themselves.
"Depriving workers of all social relations is the worst aspect of Foxconn's management model," said Professor Guo Yuhua from Tsinghua University.
It is absolutely irresponsible for Foxconn boss Terry Gou to deny time and again any connection between the suicides and the company's management approach.
"In order to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future, Foxconn needs to change its management style radically," Professor Lu Huiling from Peking University said."It should start treating its workers as human beings, not as machines." The company needs to change its power structure and allow workers' voices to be heard, says Dai Jianzhong from Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
"The company should empower workers and allow them to organize themselves through the union and other organizations," Professor Lu said."The union should be independent and its officers should be chosen by the workers in free and fair elections. Only in this way can it represent the workers' interests."
Dai said the authorities should stop turning a blind eye when companies break the law. And he called on the public and media to continue keeping a close watch on Foxconn.
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