Report: Foxconn working conditions improve

Working conditions have improved at plants owned by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based electronics giant and Apple Inc's biggest supplier, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The Fair Labor Association, a United States-based nonprofit organization, said that Foxconn has completed the actions it agreed to take to improve working conditions at its two plants in Shenzhen and one plant in Chengdu, which make Apple's popular iPhone and iPad products.

Foxconn has cut working hours to fewer than 60 hours per week, including overtime, and implemented health and safety measures.

Other measures Foxconn has taken include enforcing ergonomic breaks, changing the design of workers' equipment to guard against repetitive stress injuries, and updating maintenance policies to ensure that the equipment is working properly.

The US-based organization was commissioned by Apple in February to undertake a comprehensive audit on Foxconn's working conditions.

The move followed media reports earlier this year about a string of worker suicides, explosions at the Chengdu plant, dangerous working conditions and excessive overtime.

The organization interviewed 3,500 employees at the company's plants in Shenzhen and Chengdu. It released its findings at the end of March.

Most problems the audit found were related to long working hours and harsh working conditions. The audit found that Foxconn employees were working an average of 56 hours a week, while Chinese law allows only 40 regular hours plus nine hours of overtime.

Pay increases

In February, Foxconn raised the workers' base wages on the mainland by 16 to 25 percent, meaning a Shenzhen assembly worker now earns a base salary of 1,800 ($283) to 2,200 yuan after a six-month probation period.

This was the third salary increase since the first wave of Foxconn employee suicides in January 2010. At the time, the base salary was only 900 yuan.

After the results of the audit were published, the company promised to improve working conditions and agreed to implement a 15-month, 360-part action plan created by the FLA.

The most important part of the plan was a reduction of working hours by July 2013 to comply with Chinese law.

The US labor organization sent independent investigators to Foxconn factories from June 25 to July 6. It found that the company has completed 195 items on time and 89 ahead of schedule.

FLA President Auret van Heerden said the next phase will be challenging for Foxconn because it involves "major changes in the working environment that will inevitably cause uncertainty and anxiety among workers", adding that "consultation with workers on the changes and implications will be critical to a successful transition".

Foxconn said in a statement on Wednesday that the review by Apple and the FLA was "the largest and most comprehensive assessment of an electronics manufacturing operation ever undertaken by any independent audit organization in China".

Focus on overtime

Meanwhile, industry watchers criticized some of the items in the FLA plan.

Ji Feng, secretary-general of the Citygate Industrial Relations Forum - a nonprofit organization based in Shenzhen that follows labor relations and the rights of migrant workers - said the FLA made the wrong move by calling for less overtime as its main measure, since that will result in less income for the workers.

Ji said that most employees are willing to work extra hours to earn more money.

Huang Leping, head of the non-governmental organization Beijing Yilian Legal Aid and Study Center of Labor, said that although Foxconn has cut working hours to fewer than 60 per week, as FLA says in its report, Foxconn's working time is still far beyond the legal requirement.

"Under the context that in China most manufacturing enterprises earn profits by using cheap labor, workers can only turn to overtime to make a living," he said. "Workers' willingness to work excessively long hours shows that Foxconn's wage-distribution system is far from reasonable."

Huang suggested the participation of more representatives of workers in FLA's future audit and implementation of the action plan to improve working conditions.

"The labor union in Foxconn must be more efficient and take action to carry out collective bargaining to make workers' demands heard and make a change to the company's wage distribution mechanism," Huang said.

Foxconn should realize that a transition of current cheap labor use would help with the company's long-term development and employment maintenance, he said. "It's time to gradually end the use of cheap labor in the country, and big companies such as Foxconn should take the lead," he added.

Foxconn spokesman Liu Kun said in February that Foxconn will not permit employees to work more than 60 hours a week, or a total of 80 extra hours a month. The company will try to gradually lower the limit to a maximum of 36 extra hours a month, he said, and the company will increase its supervision of hours worked.

Reduced income

A worker surnamed Song who works at the Foxconn Longhua plant in Shenzhen, where the iPad is assembled, said she has seen lots of changes since March.

She said that previously, they worked 60 extra hours a month, and now they work only 36 extra hours. She also said the canteen now offers a wider variety of food.

But she does not like the reduction in overtime.

"I could earn around 4,000 yuan a month before. Now I earn just 3,000 yuan, though I got a 200-yuan raise in February. But that little bit of money doesn't cover the higher rent and food prices," Song said.

"If there is no change in salary, of course I would not work overtime, but if I could earn more, I would definitely work longer hours," she said.

She added she has thought about quitting because of the cut in working hours, but since work at Foxconn is stable, she is reluctant to do so.

Another worker who has worked at Foxconn for two years and who demanded anonymity said that although the hours were cut, the workload didn't go down, which means he has to do more each hour. As a result, he is more tired in addition to earning less money.

"That's the reason that many workers have quit lately," he said.

Contact the writers at huangyuli@chinadaily.com.cn and chenxin1@chinadaily.com.cn.