The proposed pay rise comes after a series of suicides at Foxconn's enormous Longhua campus in Shenzhen, southern China, has called into question working practices there and brought the company under international scrutiny.

Ten employees have committed suicide at Longhua in 2010 and another suicide attempt was made on Thursday night within a few hours of Terry Gou Foxconn's CEO promising better welfare provision.

Foxconn employs hundreds of thousands of workers in China, often bringing them considerable distances from rural districts to live in dormitories close to the factories. However, the large numbers of employees mean that a certain number of suicides would be expected each year simply on a statistical basis.

There are concerns that pressure to keep working to send money back to families in country districts, social isolation and long working hours are a contributory factor in the some of the suicide attempts.

Workers have been asking for a 50 percent pay rise, the report said. The base monthly salary for Foxconn¡¦s production workers at the Longhua plant is 950 yuan (about $140), but many staff make almost making almost 2,000 yuan (about $290) a month including overtime, the report said.

By: DocMemory
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