'Suicide Factory' Workers Relocated to Avoid Raises

Only iPhone workers will get hefty wage hikes promised by Foxconn

By Caroline Miller, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 15, 2010 10:13 AM CDT

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Foxconn Pulls Workers Out of Shenzhen to Dodge Raises — In this photo taken on Feb. 24, 2010, a recruiter talks to job seekers near a sign which reads "Foxconn Technology Group Recruitment Point" in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong province. On Sunday, June 6, 2010, Taiwanese-owned Foxconn Technology announced the second in a series of raises that would... (AP Photo)

Here's one way to avoid paying the hefty raises promised to 300,000 workers at the suicide-plagued Foxconn electronics plant in Shenzhen, China: move most of them to less expensive, remote plants in other parts of the country. Foxconn is apparently keeping the iPhone workers in Shenzhen, but moving Hewlett Packard and other production to Tianjin, Yantai, or Wuhan. The minimum monthly wage in the Shenzhen plant, near Hong Kong, is now 1,100 yuan ($161), China Daily reports, and as low as 900 yuan in the other locations.

The higher wages, plus a bonus that would have raised salaries to 2,000 yuan after 3 months, were seen as a threat to Foxconn's bottom line, and a trigger for wage inflation throughout China.
(More Foxconn stories.)

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