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China has promised to make public the results of an official investigation into the spate of suicides at Foxconn’s Shenzhen manufacturing plant.
According to Reuters, China’s vice minister of human resources and social security Zhang Xiaojian told the Beijing News that the government was not treating the suicides as just a reflection of stressful working conditions at the Longhua facility.
"The Foxconn incidents are not only a question of labour relations, and there are multiple causes," Zhang was quoted as saying. "There are enterprise management problems, the psychological problems of young workers… This was caused by multiple factors."
Zhang added that the results of the official investigation would eventually be "released to the public".
In a move countering reports that Foxconn was planning to close all it mainland China factories, the firm has reportedly kicked off a recruitment drive to find workers for plants in the south-western city of Chongqing and the Tianjin in the north.
The news follows an announcement last week that Foxconn planned to abandon the ‘factory town’ model of its manufacturing sites. The firm has also committed to raising employees’ pay by 30 per cent in July, with workers meeting certain performance levels able to earn an extra 66 per cent rise – effectively doubling their salaries.
Ten Foxconn employees have died jumped from buildings at the Longhua facility in Shenzhen, with an additional two workers surviving the fall and one attempting to slit his wrists.
