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Foxconn Drops Suit Entirely: Reuters |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Tuesday, 05 September 2006 |
Although there is no announcement posted on its website, Reuters is reporting
that the company at the centre of allegations that it exploits its workers, has
dropped the case entirely only days after reducing its claim for damages to
just 1 Yuan.
Hong Fujin Precision Industrial, a subsidiary of Foxconn, which
in turn is a trademark of Hon Hai Precision makes product for a number of the
world's leading technology companies including HP, Sony and the iPod for Apple.
The company was recently listed as the second largest computer
company in the world by BusinessWeek.
It also just announced a huge increase in profit according
to DigiTimes. Foxconn reported last
week that its after-tax profits more than doubled on year to US$302 million in
the first half of 2006. Audited revenues of US$4.38 billion in the first half
were up 86 per cent from a year earlier.
Foxconn had the assets of two Chinese journalists frozen after
they published a damning report of unfair treatment of workers in China
Business news. Foxconn then filed suit for damages after the story took off in
cyberspace. Foxconn claimed it had unfairly suffered damage to its reputation
as a result of the ‘malicious' untruths in the story and demanded the
equivalent of 800 years salary from the two journalists as recompense.
The company was criticised for pursuing the journalists so harshly
and for not following accepted legal process of naming the publishing house as
a defendant in the suit.
Clearly the suit was designed to intimidate and silence the journalists
rather than to get financial compensation because it was only after news broke
of the journalist's plight that the company included their employer in the proceedings.
After the global "Reporters
Without Borders" organisation issued a public letter to Apple CEO Steve
Jobs asking him to intercede in the dispute, the Taiwan-based company amended
its suit to demand just 1 Yuan (about 12 U.S. cents) and asked the court to release
the journo's assets after being frozen for about 6 weeks.
Reuters is now reporting
that the official Xinhua news agency reports that since the China Business News
was involved directly in the writ, the proceeding have now been entirely
dropped.
Apparently the two companies issued a joint statement agreeing
to cooperate to protect workers' rights.
The whole dispute has been a sad display of big business
abuse of not only hard working Chinese workers, but of the freedoms of the
press.
Although the company has focused on a claim in the story that
"For every 1,000 new hires [at Foxconn's
Shenzen plant], 500 having pre-existing illness". However, it has reportedly admitted it did break local
Chinese labor laws by allowing workers to work more than 38 hours over time
per month.
Not that the workers would admit to being upset by that. An Apple audit team
sent in to allay public concerns over the reports found that one of the biggest
complaints the workers had with the company was that overtime was limited.
However, the overtime issue is also covered by Apple's OEM agreement
"Code of Conduct" which says no manufacturer making Apple product will allow
their employees to work more than 60 hours overtime a month - which would also
be against local labor laws.
The company was also not meeting Apple's requirement that
the workers should have at least one day off a week. There were other issues at
the plant, some of more concern than others.
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