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Fox Yi Hu

An 18-year-old from Yunnan  province falls to her death from a dormitory at one of electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group's Shenzhen plants.
A day earlier, another 18-year-old, from Jiangxi  province, jumps from a seventh-floor dormitory window at the same plant, in Guanlan, in an apparent suicide attempt. A tree cushions her fall. 
A month earlier, in March, three other young workers jump off buildings at another Foxconn plant. Two die. In January, a teenage trainee plunges to his death at the Guanlan plant.
Foxconn employees, who make components of Apple's iPhones, iPads and iPods, and parts for Sony and Dell,  say work pressures may have been a contributory factor in the some of the suicides.
A former workshop supervisor who left Foxconn in the middle of last year said workers were subjected to body searches to prevent theft. They were punished when they made mistakes at work. 'Body searches were not unusual, to prevent people taking out phones or USB drives,' the former employee said. 'Workers who have made mistakes may be forced to stand for a long time or even to clean the washroom.' 
Still, work conditions may not always be a factor. The woman saved by a tree on Tuesday, and who was afterwards reported in critical condition, had apparently jumped following an argument on the phone with her boyfriend, company spokesman Liu Kun was quoted as saying.
Despite her suicide attempt, the death the following day and the other recent death leaps, little counselling has been given to  Foxconn workers, who come from various rural parts of the mainland and are mostly in their late teens or early twenties. Slogging away on the assembly line making iPhone and iPad parts, Foxconn's young workers in Shenzhen know little about the growing number of suicides among their colleagues.
Workers questioned about the incidents outside the Guanlan plant on Friday were unaware of last week's cases.
'I've never heard of them,' said Yu Liang, 19, who works 12 hours a day, 28 days a month, polishing the shells of Apple computers. Rumours of suicides had spread in the past, he said, but he was never sure of their authenticity.
'There were few details, so I didn't know whether the rumours were true or not,' he said.
Chen Yanhua, 20, who works on an assembly line making smartphone shells, said she had never heard of any of the suicide cases before. She said no counselling was available, but her workshop supervisor had asked her to seek help if necessary. 'My supervisor said we should go to him for help if we have emotional problems,' Chen said.
Since July, deaths and suicides have been plaguing the Taiwan-based company, which employs about 400,000 people in Shenzhen, at least 5 per cent of the city's labour force. On July 16 a 25-year-old engineer died over the loss of an iPhone prototype, which called into question the tough security measures Foxconn takes with its employees. Sun Danyong jumped off the 12th-floor balcony of a building after he was suspected of stealing the prototype.
Though there have been more deaths since then, conditions for Foxconn workers may in fact have improved since Sun's death, which triggered a public outcry.
Workers said there had been fewer incidents of body searching and lighter punishments in the last few months.
A 20-year-old worker from Foxconn's factory in Huangtian, Shenzhen, said the guards usually searched only workers' bags. She said there had been incidents where coworkers were forced to sweep the workshop after making mistakes.
Many workers live in crowded dormitory rooms, each accommodating seven or eight people. Many such dormitory buildings have only two public washrooms on each floor - where about 100 people live.
Work pressure in other Shenzhen factories are not necessarily lower than in Foxconn, people who have worked in different factories say.
In fact, Foxconn's working conditions are better than many other factories in the city, they say.
Its young workers work for 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, earning 1,700 yuan to 2,500 yuan (HK$1,900 to HK$2,800) a month. These wages are more attractive than those offered by many other Shenzhen companies.
Free meals and accommodation are also offered. 
'There would be challenges wherever you work,' said Chen, who had tried different jobs. 'It's important to look on the bright side.'
Foxconn spokesman Edmund Ding could not be reached for comment. Calls to Ding's office on Friday evening and Saturday went unanswered. An employee of Foxconn's media relations office in Shenzhen declined to comment on Friday.



iPad workers unfazed by spate of suicides