iPad maker Foxconn hikes China workers’ pay

Foxconn Technology Group, the top maker of Apple iPhones and iPads whose factories are under scrutiny over labour practices, has raised the wages of its Chinese workers by 16%-25%, the third pay rise since 2010.

Taiwan-based Foxconn said the pay of a junior level worker in Shenzhen, southern China, had risen to 1,800 yuan (€216) per month and could be raised above 2,200 yuan if the worker passed a technical examination. It said that pay three years ago was 900 yuan a month.

The news comes after Apple — criticised over working conditions at its sprawling chain of suppliers in China — said a US non-profit labour group had begun an “unprecedented” inspection of working conditions at its main contract manufacturers.

Working practices at Foxconn’s huge plants in China came under intense scrutiny in 2010 after a series of suicides among young workers. Last June three workers died in an explosion at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, western China.

Last month the New York Times published an investigation into working practices at Apple suppliers’ plants in China that documented poor health and safety conditions and long working hours.

In response, Apple said the Washington DC-based Fair Labor Association would monitor conditions at supplier plants beginning on Feb 14.

“As a top manufacturing company in China, the basic salary of junior workers in all of Foxconn’s China factories is already far higher than the minimum wage set by all local governments,” a Foxconn statement said.

“We will provide more training opportunities and learning time, and will continuously enhance technology, efficiency and salary, so as to set a good example for the Chinese manufacturing industry.”

The last time Foxconn Group raised wages was in June 2010, when the pay of its Chinese workers went up by over 30%.

An ABC show, due to be aired in America last night showed how on a quiet day, 3,000 prospective employees lingered outside the factory in the hope of earning just $1.78 (€1.34) an hour.

Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc’s iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.

The Fair Labor Association began a study of the working conditions of Apple’s top eight suppliers in China, following reports of suicides, a plant explosion and slave-like conditions at Foxconn.

Auret van Heerden, president of the association, offered no immediate conclusions on the conditions, but noted boredom and alienation could have contributed to the stress that led some to take their own lives.