Three new suicides at Foxconn China factory

Google – AFP, 18 May 2013

Foxconn recruitment point is pictured in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong

province, on February 22, 2013 (AFP/File)

BEIJING — Three Foxconn workers have committed suicide at a factory in China in the past three weeks, state media and a labour rights group said Saturday.

All three jumped to their deaths at a plant in the central city of Zhengzhou run by the Taiwanese electronics giant.

A 30-year-old married man killed himself on Tuesday following the similar deaths of a 23-year-old woman on April 27 and a 24-year-old man three days earlier, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The reasons for these building jumpings are unclear," the New York-based China Labor Watch rights group said in a statement.

Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010.

In 2010, at least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of staff.

Although Foxconn denied the accusations, it raised wages by nearly 70 percent at its China plants in 2010.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of computer components and employs up to 1.1 million workers in China.

Related Article:

Foxconn to Partner With Indonesian Firm on Manufacturing Plant: Minister