iPhone maker ‘overworked’

A WORKER at iPhone maker Foxconn’s southern China manufacturing hub, the scene of a string of employee suicides this year, died late last week from what his family said was overwork, a claim the company denied.

Yan Li, a 27-year-old engineer, died suddenly at his home early on May 27, according to a statement from China Labour Watch, a US-based organisation.

The statement said that according to his family, Yan Li had been working the night shift for more than a month straight, sometimes working 24 hours non-stop.

Taiwan electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry, the owner of Foxconn, said in a separate statement that it did not see the death as work-related.

A total of 10 workers have committed suicide at the company’s base in Longhua this year.