FOXCON: A Case Study

Tragedies at FOXCONN were due to poor working conditions whereby workers who took their lives saw suicide as the only escape from the horrific conditions they were subjected to. The factory made employees work for extended hours without any time for rest except for breaks to sleep or eat. In addition, the employees were paid poorly and worked overtime without pay. The Chinese government could have averted these tragedies by ensuring that companies, especially manufacturers accorded their entire employees ideal working conditions and paid them fair wages (Parella, 2014).
Parella (2014) points out that although the Chinese government has put in place laws and regulations to improve working conditions and protect workers, enforcement of these laws and regulations is poor. If the government had ensured FOXCONN complied with the laws and improved its labor practices, its workers would have had no reason to commit suicide. Implementation and enforcement of the laws is left to local governments which results in unevenness in terms of compliance. Companies and local governments particularly discriminate against immigrant workers because they are not recognized as citizens (citizenship …show more content…
The companies also stifled complaints from employees, often threatening to punish them. The companies also took advantage of poor enforcement of laws to pay their employees poor wages and even force them to work overtime without pay or with little pay. NIKE for example used excuses of training employees to pay them below minimum wages. Although its factories could not qualify for vocational schools, the company also used vocational training programs as a way of underpaying workers, a practice that is both unethical and