Foxconn, one of Apple’s main manufacturing contractors, has strict rules governing employee’s behaviour, including a ban on gambling, “shady entertainment venues” and speculative investments.
The China Times revealed that the company has eight rules designed to enforce discipline and protect workers:
1. Do not join organized crime gangs or activities.
2. Do not engage in illegal gambling, prostitution or drugs.
3. Do not engage in corruption, accept bribes, accept supplier dinners or gifts.
4. Do not visit shady entertainment venues.
5. Do not engage in improper male-female relations, i.e. extramarital affairs.
6. Do not participate in speculative, illegal investments.
7. Do not participate in activities that are bad for physical or mental health.
8. Employees who are on duty during long public holidays, or take an overseas trip, must sign an “employee safety agreement” and inform the company of their whereabouts.
In a statement Foxconn said the rules have been in place for some time, though it wouldn’t say how they were enforced.
The company has recently come under international scrutiny after a spate of suicides at the Shenzhen plant linked to long working hours and poor conditions.
The company denied the allegations and invited journalists on a tour of the plant’s extensive facilities. It also stopped compensating the families of those who died — believing that some suicides were motivated the size of the payments, worth around £10,000 and the equivalent of several years’ wages for the average Chinese worker — and says it has installed safety nets to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths (though one did that just recently).
Apple, in common with other Foxconn clients including HP and Dell, has said it are closely monitoring any reports of ill-treatment of employees.
