Hon Hai Boosts "Entertainment" Time
To make its workers happy and prevent more suicides at its factories, Hon Hai Precision, the world’s biggest contract electronics maker, is moving to boost “entertainment” time for its staff and is also cutting overtime hours.
The company, which makes Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and its popular tablet PC, the iPad, held a carnival-like “morale-boosting” rally earlier this week with its employees at its Shenzhen manufacturing base. Under the theme of “Treasure your life, love your family and care for each other,” tens of thousands of young, costumed employees sang, danced and paraded.
“We are less stressed as we’re getting more time off from work. We are enjoying the rally,” said one factory worker who declined to give his full name.
A spate of employee suicides have cast unwanted attention on Hon Hai this year. The company gave wage increases and outfitted its dormitories with safety nets.
“For a long time, we were kind of blinded by our success,” Louis Woo, special assistant to Hon Hai Chairman Terry Guo said on the sidelines of the rally Wednesday. “To be very frank and open, I think we were caught by surprise by the structural changes in the worker composition.”
