TAIPEI, May 28 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry 2317.TW plans to raise salaries for workers at its Foxconn unit in China by about 20 percent, it said on Friday, a move that follows a spate of apparent suicides at some of its production bases.
A tenth employee of Foxconn 2038.HK, maker of the Apple AAPL.O iPhone, jumped to his death late on Wednesday. Another employee attempted to slit his wrists, but survived with medical attention, the Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday. [ID:nTOE64Q03K]
Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding the rise in the cash portion of salary packages for all its workers in China had been planned for some time. He did not say when the rises would be implemented. Hon Hai shares rose 0.8 percent in a broader Taiwan market .TWII up 1.6 percent.
The planned pay rise could increase Hon Hai’s quarterly labour costs by about T$2.7 billion ($84 million), which would erode its operating profit by around 10-12 percent, Citi said in a report.
The spate of deaths has thrown a spotlight on the labour practices of Foxconn, whose clients also include Dell DELL.O, Hewlett Packard HPQ.N and Sony Ericsson ERICb.ST6758.T.
Apple and other clients have said they are investigating working conditions at Foxconn, which has some 420,000 employees at its base in Shenzhen and has come under fire for its secretive corporate culture.
Separately, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported on Friday that mainland media have been ordered to tone down their reporting of the events at Foxconn.
Many major newspapers and websites said propaganda officials had told them to recall their reporters from Shenzhen, and use reports from the official Xinhua news agency and other official statements.
One reporter from a Guangdong publication told the newspaper he had seen at least four ban orders in the last week. ($1=32.03 Taiwan Dollar) (Additional reporting by Doug Young in Hong Kong; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
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