Foxconn, the Taiwanese giant and a major manufacturer for the US based Apple Corp, has a problem.  Employees keep dying or trying to commit suicide.  In the latest case on April 6 an eighteen year old worker surnamed Rao leaped from her seventh floor accommodation at the company’s factory in Guanlan, Shenzhen, at about 3:20 pm following an altercation with her boyfriend, Foxconn spokesman Liu Kun told China Daily.   The incident comes eight days after a 23 year old worker fell from a 14th floor of the dormitory building at the same factory.  Liu said Foxconn is providing psychological counseling to its near 400,000 workforce in Shenzhen.  It seems like more than counseling is required.  The Times Online reported in July 2009 that a Foxconn employee committed suicide after losing a prototype iPhone.  The factory worker leapt to his death after allegedly being beaten by security guards.
Takeaway:

• Do not just sign intellectual property protection contracts with suppliers.  Consider the repercussions for workers’ safety when the contracts are over-zealously enforced in a country where workers live on site and have little power to protect themselves.

• Check the conditions under which employees in your supply chain are working.  Shenzhen is a short train ride away from Hong Kong but a different planet in terms of working conditions.  Don’t be a lazy manager in Hong Kong.  Go and meet the people who make your products.

• Ensure that workers who live ‘on-site’ are properly protected.  Migrant workers live in vast warehouse dorms.  They cannot escape ruthless management.  Wolf Totem is rumored to be the favored business manual for managers at Foxconn.  The book is about the fight for territory between Mongolian wolves and herdsmen.  Ensure the wolves cannot bite your workforce.  It takes the sheen off your pristine white ipod if it is smeared with teenage blood.