By Janet Ong and Mark Lee
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of electronics, said 150 workers at one of its plants in southern China protested over a plan to transfer them to another business unit.
The Jan. 4 incident at Foxconn’s plant in Wuhan was resolved the same day after talks with executives and local government officials, the Taiwanese company said in an e-mailed statement today. Microsoft Corp., which outsources production of its Xbox game consoles to Foxconn, said in a separate e-mailed statement that it investigated the dispute.
Foxconn, which employs more than 1 million workers in China making products, including the XBox and Apple Inc.’s iPad tablets, raised wages and boosted worker welfare in 2010 after at least 10 employees committed suicides. The deaths prompted labor groups, including China Labor Watch, to say the Taipei- based company pushes employees to work long hours to earn more money.
“After talking with workers and management, it is our understanding that the worker protest was related to staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions,” Microsoft said in its statement. The majority of the protesters at Foxconn chose to return to work, Microsoft said.
Foxconn said 45 of the 150 workers resigned, according to its statement.
--Edmond Lococo, Tim Culpan. Editors: Michael Tighe, Frank Longid
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at wlee37@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
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