Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou, one of Taiwan’s best known businessmen, on Wednesday led a rare media tour of the Chinese complex, part of an unprecedented publicity blitz to counter a growing backlash over the suspected suicides.
“I’m very concerned about this. I can’t sleep every night,” said Gou. “From a scientific point of view, I’m not confident we can stop every case. But, as a responsible employer, we have to take up the responsibility of preventing as many as we can.”
The stakes are high for Hon Hai and its Foxconn unit that makes mobile phones for Nokia and other global names, amid growing calls from activists for a global boycott of products like Apple’s latest generation iPhone.
Apple’s comment:
We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn. We’re in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously. A team from Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address these tragic events and we will continue our ongoing inspections of the facilities where our products are made.
Dell weighed in as well:
We expect our suppliers to employ the same high standards we do in our own facilities. We enforce these standards through a variety of tools, including the Electronics Industry code of conduct, business reviews with suppliers, self-assessments and audits
It’s good to see these companies looking into things. Foxconn insists they are one of the best Chinese factories in terms of employee treatment. That’s frightening.