Anti-Suicide Pledges, Monks, Hotlines And Distress Rooms At Apple's Chinese Manufacturer

Oct. 4, 2010
The recent rash of suicides at Foxconn plants building Apple products has been well-documented here at IW. However, I was wondering what mitigation procedures Foxconn had put into place to deal with these tragedies. Besides the dramatic 70% wage hike, ...

The recent rash of suicides at Foxconn plants building Apple products has been well-documented here at IW. However, I was wondering what mitigation procedures Foxconn had put into place to deal with these tragedies.

Besides the dramatic 70% wage hike, several of their methods stood out to me as worthy of note:

The first is an anti-suicide pledge that Foxconn is now requiring all workers to sign. It reads, in part:

I shall be forbidden to hurt myself or others; I shall agree to the company standard of protecting the health of myself and others, and to report myself or those with mental or physical issues to the proper medical authorities.
3. If hurt in any accident (including suicide and self mutilation) due to non-work related incidents, I agree to have the issue resolved by the police based on current laws. I myself or my family absolutely cannot sue the company. Further, we agree to not do anything that would cause further damage to the company reputation or affect the normal operation of the company in any way.


Secondly, according to the Chinese gadget blog Made In China, management has attempted several tactics:

To stop this suicide cluster, Foxconn firstly hired Buddhist monks to bless for the workers. Secondly, they provide a hotline of "78585″ in which brings a homophonic meaning "请帮我帮我" in Chinese for the workers. In English, it means "Please help me, help me".
According to MIC (and other sources), Foxconn management have also introduced a "Distress Room", a concept neatly encapsulated in the picture below. Supposedly, the factory management have even volunteered to have their faces pasted on the front. Seeing as it's Apple we're talking about, it makes me wonder -- isn't there an app for that? (Or would this "Distress Room" concept be better suited for the Wii platform?)

http://img.pics.livedoor.com/011/c/5/c5d1aa4260b23e416f0d-LL.jpg

About the Author

Brad Kenney Blog | Chief Marketing Officer

Brad Kenney is the former Technology Editor of IndustryWeek and now serves as director of the mobile/social platforms practice at R/GA, a global marketing/advertising firm in New York City.

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