Foxconn Confirms Death at China Plant After Watchdog Reports Suicide

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, a key supplier to Apple Inc, confirmed the death of an employee at its Zhengzhou plant in China which a labour group said was suicide.

Hon Hai, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic products, is one of the largest private employers in China and has worked to improve labour conditions following a series of suicides in 2010-2011, mostly at its Shenzhen manufacturing operation.

The statement from Hon Hai, which goes by the trade name of Foxconn, came after watchdog China Labor Watch reported that a Foxconn worker committed suicide by jumping off a building at the Zhengzhou plant which makes Apple's iPhone products.

In a statement, Hon Hai said that a 28-year-old male employee was found dead outside a building at its campus in Zhengzhou in the early morning of August 4.

Earlier this month, Foxconn, said it will invest in India as it builds a supply chain in the country, in a move that may help the country's efforts to build a technology manufacturing base. In January, Foxconn said will cut its massive workforce as it faced declining revenue growth and rising wages in China.

The Redmond giant had responded to a BBC report last year claiming workers in Chinese factories making Apple products are poorly treated, with exhausted employees falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts.

Reporters who took jobs undercover at the Pegatron factories found workers regularly exceeded 60 hours a week more than the company's guidance and that standards on ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were also breached. The broadcaster said promises made by Apple to protect workers in the wake of a spate of suicides at supplier Foxconn in 2010 were "routinely broken".

Apple said that it disagreed with the BBC's conclusions. "We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions," the US consumer electronics giant told the BBC. "We work with suppliers to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done," it added.

Written with agency inputs