A group of about 300 employees at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, China that makes Xbox 360s threatened to kill themselves last week after being denied compensation promised to them by the company, according to reports.
Foxconn, a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry, makes computer and electronics products for such high-profile customers as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Sony, among others.
The mass suicide threat stemmed from an incident on Jan. 2, in which the workers asked for a raise and were told to either quit with compensation or keep their jobs and receive no pay increase, according to a report from WantChinaTines.com citing a story from China Jasmine Revolution, an anti-Chinese government site. Most decided to quit with compensation, but the company ultimately terminated the agreement and the workers never received their payments.
In response, the employees went to the top of a building at a Foxconn Technology Park and threatened to jump, according to the report. The mayor of the town eventually came and talked them out of it.
Suicide at Foxconn has been a serious problem in the past. At least 14 Foxconn workers in plants in the Chinese cities of Shenzen and Chengdu have taken their own lives since a string of worker suicides began in early 2010. And this past May, a large explosion at the Chengdu plant killed three people and wounded more than a dozen.
Such incidents have shined the spotlight on harsh working conditions within the company. According to the watchdog group Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, which traveled to two of Foxconn's factories to interview workers, conditions at several of the company’s China facilities are unsafe, military-like, and drive workers to despair and suicide.
Foxconn has even forced employees to sign a pledge promising that they won't commit suicide and installed nets outside factory dormitories to deter potential jumpers.