We are reviewing everything, Terry Gou, the chairman of the Hon Hai Precision Industry Group of Taiwan and one of Asia's richest men, said after traveling here from the company's headquarters in Taiwan. He said the company was reviewing labor practices, hiring psychiatrists and putting up safety nets on the buildings.
We will leave no stone unturned, Mr. Gou said, and we will make sure to find a way to reduce these suicide tendencies.
Mr. Gou spoke at a hastily organized news conference and media tour on the campus of Foxconn Technology, the Hon Hai subsidiary that operates some of the worlds biggest factories and produces a wide range of electronics for global brands, including American computer makers.
Foxconn, which has about 420,000 employees on two campuses in Shenzhen, is known for its military-style efficiency, the awesome scale of its production operations and for manufacturing popular products like the Apple iPhone. But this year the company has come under intense scrutiny because of a string of suicides by distressed workers between the ages of 18 and 24.
And only a few hours after the Foxconn news conference, yet another died after falling from one of the factory buildings, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. It was not immediately known whether the death was an accident or suicide. The most recent known suicide, as ruled by the police, had taken place early Tuesday, when a 19-year-old employee fell to his death here.
It was the ninth suicide this year by an employee at one of Foxconn's two Shenzhen campuses, police said. Two additional workers survived suicide attempts with serious injuries.
Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard say they were now investigating conditions at Foxconn amid growing concern about the suicides. The companies say that all their manufacturers are required to comply with international labor standards.
But several labor rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the suicides and labor conditions at Foxconn, saying some deaths appear to be suspicious. Some advocates have also accused the company of running huge sweatshops that regularly violate Chinese labor laws and treat workers harshly.
Those assertions have been bolstered in recent weeks by China's state-run newspapers, which have published a series of sensational reports about the suicides alongside exposs detailing the harsh conditions inside Foxconn factories.
