When Foxconn was hit by a string of suicides among its workers earlier this year, the company’s first reaction was to try and wait for the trouble to just go away.

Not anymore. Wednesday afternoon, the once so media-shy company – which makes a major portion of the world’ s iPhones and other electronics gadgets – put itself in the limelight with a nationwide rally for its 800,000 workers. Continue reading »

Governments fighting inflation might normally be expected to challenge companies jacking up wages by over 100 per cent. But Beijing does not seem to be unhappy about the moves by Hon Hai, the Taiwanese company hit by a spate of suicides at its Chinese plants, to increase minimum pay by 30 per cent from July 1, and by a further 66 per cent in October for workers meeting performance standards.

The deaths of 10 workers puts Hon Hai, together with its subsidiary Foxconn International, in a category of its own. However, analysts say that these increases will be welcome to the Chinese authorities, both in themselves and in the precedents they set for other employers. Beijing wants to improve living standards for the tens of millions of migrant workers employed in China’s manufacturing plants and to boost consumer demand to ease global economic imbalances. Continue reading »