By Jia Huajie and Pang Lijing (贾华杰, 庞丽静)
News, cover
Issue No. 567
April 30, 2012
Translated by Zhu Na
Original article: [Chinese]

This is an extended abstract of an article that appeared in this week's edition of The Economic Observer, for more highlights from the EO print edition, click here

Government officials in Chengdu have had an extra responsibility since 2010, when Foxconn opened the factory that now makes two thirds of the world’s iPads – they have to find workers for the production lines.  

The Taiwanese manufacturer’s investment is the largest so far in western China, and the firm was lured to the region with preferential taxes and land leases.

The incentives from the government included a pledge to help recruit workers for the production line.

"Foxconn only needs to tell the Sichuan provincial labor department how many workers are needed…they’ll continuously recruit new staff for the factory,” said an employee at Foxconn’s headquarters in Shenzhen.

Luzhou, which is also in Sichuan province, sent 12,000 people to the factory in 2011.

Luzhou officials have recruitment quotas and earn a 600 yuan bonus for each worker that they sign up, with an extra 1,000 yuan for every extra worker. If they fail to meet the quota, they have 500 yuan docked off their paychecks.

Local government offices such as Luzhou organize teams to escort workers to the factory. The workers from the city of Guangyuan were even accompanied by police cars and ambulances.

At its busiest time, the Chengdu site had 120,000 employees, but the size of the workforce fell to 90,000 in October 2011 and it's currently around 60,000 people.

Foxconn has thirteen factories in China, but puts orders through its Chengdu site ahead of others because costs are low there and it benefits from preferential land and tax terms as well as free accommodation and transport for its employees.

Whenever there is a worker shortage on Foxconn’s production line in Chengdu, the human resources department puts pressure on the government. “The government has to meet its promise, otherwise we can withdraw our investment," said a person working in middle management at Foxconn.

A former logistics manager said the turnover of workers is high, with many staying for just three months, and added that Foxconn’s pay is lower than advertised.

“Originally [Foxconn] promised eight working hours a day, and overtime of two hours, in fact, you need to work overtime of four to five hours,” he said, adding that a friend of his working on the assembly line sometimes earns only 1,300 yuan a month. 

The Sichuan provincial labor department is tired of Foxconn’s constant recruitment demands. For example, the head of one labor and social security bureau in Guangyuan has had to find workers for Foxconn from neighboring Shaanxi province.

Officials in one Sichuan village have even been penalizing families who fail to send workers to Foxconn.  

"The government said, if no one from one family goes to work at Foxconn, then 1,000 yuan will be deducted from the household's 10,000 yuan subsidy for refurbishing dilapidated buildings,” a villager in Yibin County (宜宾县) told the EO.

One government employee, a twenty-six year-old woman who asked not to be named, was sent to work for a month at the Foxconn factory because she had failed to fulfill the recruitment quota for the company. 

"It was absurd. My classmates and colleagues all laughed at me ‘are you going to Foxconn to jump from the roof,’” she said recalling her time there.

While she was on the production line she was also collecting her government salary, but the factory work exhausted her and she fell ill.