A worker at iPhone maker Foxconn's southern China manufacturing hub, the scene of a string of employee suicides this year, died late last week from what his family said was overwork, a claim the company denied.
Yan Li, a 27-year-old engineer, died suddenly at his home early on May 27th, according to a statement from China Labour Watch, a US-based activist organisation.
The statement said that according to his family, Yan Li had been working the night shift for more than a month straight, sometimes working 24 hours non-stop.
Taiwan contract electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry, the owner of Foxconn, said in a separate statement that it did not see the death as work-related.
"We have reviewed this matter and while we cannot speculate the specific cause of death, we have found nothing to support any allegation that it was work-related," the statement said.
A total of 10 workers have committed suicide at the company's base in Longhua, southern China this year. The dead were all young migrant workers, among the millions who leave the poor hinterlands of China for the boom towns of the south and east coastal areas in search of work and high wages.
The deaths have triggered investigations by Apple and other big Foxconn clients, including Dell Inc.
Hon Hai said yesterday it would raise wages at the plant by 30 per cent as it deals with the fallout from the death.
Reuters