Foxconn claims dead worker had questionable record
updated 12:05 pm EDT, Mon July 27, 2009
Foxconn blames dead worker
The Foxconn worker who killed himself in mid-July, Sun Danyong, may not have been wholly innocent, claims the company's general manager for China, James Lee. Interviewed by the New York Times, Lee notes that products went missing several times under Danyong's watch, although they would always return. The disappearance of a fourth-generation iPhone prototype -- immediately preceding Danyong's death -- is said to have raised suspicions. "We don't know who took the product, but it was at his stop," says Lee.
Following Danyong's confession, reports have alleged that the worker was subjected to an intense interrogation by Foxconn security, involving solitary confinement, a search of his dorm and a beating. Recent information indicates that Danyong's family was given $44,000 and a MacBook as compensation; during a interview with the family last week, however, a security guard and two Foxconn workers are said to have threatened the translator, demanding that he stop asking questions. Foxconn has since said the guard was not on staff.
Conditions at many Foxconn plants are believed to be poor. A July investigation discovered that during 2008, 45 of 83 factories building iPhones and iPods were not paying proper overtime; 23 were failing to pay China's minimum wage. In its tour of one Foxconn factory, the Times was told by one in 15 employees that they were forced to work illegal amounts of overtime.
a time-honored practice
07/27, 12:55pm reply
blame the dead guy, after all he can't defend himself.
climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
so...
07/27, 01:36pm (1 reply) reply
Give guy prototype. It disappears for a while, but then returns as mysteriously as it disappered. Do this several more times.
OK, so how many times does it take before you go "Um, maybe we should stop giving the new stuff to the guy who keeps having them disappear on him"?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Stay classy Foxconn
07/27, 02:13pm reply
I can't believe Apple would still use these clowns. Even IF he did "lose" multiple prototypes does that give them the right to interrogate him and his family to the point that he kills himself?
Fire him, problem solved.
Course, Americans want cheap products. The "cost" has to go somewhere and this is where it went.
zelet
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2004
dead are always guilty
07/27, 02:29pm reply
zelet, you are right on. We're seeing the underbelly of globalization.
Le Flaneur
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Oct 1999
Typical Corp. Response
07/27, 03:07pm (1 reply) reply
Typical.
ANY time an employee dares question or blows the whistle or have their conduct call into question the company they work for: blame the employee!
As we've all seen here in the good ole USofA, accusations are much more important (and can cause much more damage) than the actual truth.
Foxconn is learning well from it's American masters.
Blame first, ask questions later?
JeffHarris
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
That place sounds f*cked
07/27, 05:47pm reply
"Sorry your son is dead, here is a macbook pro and 40 grand."
WTF ??? That company sounds whacked. I feel bad to have supported them in any shape or form buying products.
DeezNutts
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2008
Reprehensible
07/27, 07:25pm reply
This is reprehensible, truly despicable that they would still try to smear the guy even after they had driven him to suicide; even after admitting liability by paying off his family (no matter how pathetic the pay-off was). However, least we American get too pious about it, we should remember that our own FBI did this to a gentle scientist named Bruce Ivans, using no more evidence than FoxConn did, and continues to this day to smear his name despite a total lack of evidence linking him to the crime. Apple definitely should take some responsibility for this, and other abuses, that have and are taking place at FoxConn, but we Americans can easily also stop buying those products, any products made in China for that matter, and even more to the point, hold our own government accountable for practicing the same behavior (and this Administration is just as guilty as the last; it has been six months and none of this modus has changed).
TheSnarkmeister
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2007
our backyard
07/28, 01:40pm reply
We don't see this stuff when it happens here. When we see it overseas we're outraged.
There's a reason Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" is one of his best songs.
Loren
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2001