When a series of workers took their lives at Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, earlier this year, they triggered fierce debate about labour conditions in China.
Half a year down the road, many things have changed at Foxconn: the company gave many workers at its largest plant in Shenzhen a drastic wage rise, it is relocating much of its production to cheaper locations inland, and it is handing responsibility for housing and feeding its workers to the local governments. But nothing at all has changed with regard to workers’ rights, as a statement from the country’s government-backed trade union shows.
Guo Jun, an official at the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), said at a conference on Wednesday that Foxconn was violating the labour law by having its workers do massive overtime.