Right to life and death
Posted on May 29, 2010 by john
Even today an employee of the multinational Foxconn China, near Shenzhen in Taiwan, took his own life. He was only nineteen. The news has not been matched particular, if it was the twelfth case of suicide since the beginning of the holding, and especially if the Foxconn (about 900,000 employees around the world) was not the factory Assembly of choice for world’s leading brands of electronics such as Bell’s, HP, Sony and Apple. The news of suicides chain began to spread like wildfire. With it a bad reputation of exploitation and oppression of workers, which threatens to tarnish the leading products of the technology world. The problem is serious. One of the most recent suicide at Foxconn concerns an engineer 25 years, guilty of having lost a prototype of the new I-phone of the fourth series. The boy committed suicide during the searches and humiliating interrogations which is undergone by that facility. Usually the suicides of Foxconn choose to jump from the roof of the impressive buildings that rise in the factory. These short flights of eight or ten floors, which resemble an extreme act of freedom. The owner of Foxconn, the wealthy entrepreneur Terry Gou, in alarm. Apple and other client companies announce strict independent surveys. To avoid any doubt, Terry Gou decided the case in the history of his company to open the gates of Foxconn. Usually the factory is guarded by an order that is the envy of a prison. Yesterday, Terry Gou has personally led several journalists on a tour to the assembly halls, gyms, dormitories, swimming pools that are inside the area. His workers, he said, are a normal life: work, eat, sleep. The salary of its employees is higher than their Chinese counterparts. In short, Gou does not accept being called a slave. This wave of suicide if its not explained. However, today announced a series of measures: he took some 100 consultants, psychologists and Buddhist monks, and established a telephone helpline. The latest idea, then, is sensational. The volcanic entrepreneur made his employees sign a formal commitment not to commit suicide and not to inflict physical damage. The initiative does not seem much of a deterrent bizarre, but contains a significant legal clause. The family of the workers lose the right to claim any compensation in case of suicide of a spouse. Not just when you think that kids who work as inmates Foxcoon watchful eyes of the factory in Shenzhen are very young, are almost all from rural China and are probably only children (by law) to parents who have lost their long traditional livelihoods. Terry Gou is probably not a slave, but his business idea is based on a principle very clear: the employer is entitled to exercise absolute control over the lives of his workers. Now it can also carry over death.