富士康这个名字，由于今年来持续的跳楼事件而被大众所熟悉。

protesters from sacom (students and scholars against corporate misbehaviour) burn effigies of apple products in hong kong wednesday during a demonstration over a string of suicides by foxconn employees. photo: afp

by guo qiang and ji beibei

folding under the strain of their jobs or perhaps as an extreme show of protest, some foxconn technology group employees are literally jumping to their deaths, and the number of apparent suicides reached double digits wednesday.

so far this year, it appears 12 employees have attempted to kill themselves, mainly by jumping from their dormitories. two were unsuccessful. and another employee died of a heart attack in her dorm.

the total number of dead stood at 11 wednesday, and the toll has led to accusations that the taiwan-based electronics maker is running sweatshops. psychological experts have also expressed concern for the general well-being of people's health amid major societal changes.

li hai, 19, a vocational-school graduate from central hunan province, plunged from a building at foxconn's guanlan plant in shenzhen, guangdong province, at 6:20 am wednesday. he had worked there just 42 days, according to chen hongfang, director of foxconn's labor union office, who spoke to reporters wednesday.

pending the outcome of an investigation, police declined wednesday to rule the death a suicide.

but sources familiar with the incident told the xinhua news agency wednesday that the man left a note, which was addressed to his father, saying, "i have no capabilities. i have gotten what i deserve."

the latest death was the ninth at foxconn's massive factory complex in shenzhen, which employs 420,000 people, more than half of its global staff. the two employees who survived their jumps were also from that plant.

the two remaining deaths occurred at a foxconn plant in langfang, north hebei province, in january and february, respectively. rong bo died after jumping off the company's dormitory building january 8. and wang lingyan, 16, died from a heart attack suffered in her dor-mitory february 23.

a foxconn employee in shenzhen, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the global times wednesday that the company had requested that staff members sign contracts stipulating that "families of any employee who resorts to self-injury or suicide will not get compensation from foxconn."

the statement also said that employees exhibiting abnormal behavior must undergo medical checkups that the company would arrange, according to the source, who said he had worked at the plant for more than four years.

"the prescribed work time is from 8 am to 5:30 pm, but workers must come at least 20 minutes earlier and usually leave at 8 pm or 9 pm. they have only two hours for lunch and dinner, and 10 minutes of rest every two hours," he said.

"some managers often verbally abuse workers."

foxconn president terry gou wednesday refuted claims that it operates sweatshops. speaking in taipei, he also promised to stabilize the situation at the company.

but the spate of apparent suicides has led to a firestorm of criticism against foxconn by labor groups. us-based china labor watch has criticized foxconn's "military-style administration and harsh working conditions," calling on the company to "initiate a thoroughgoing analysis of life on its production lines," according to media reports.

additionally, more than 30 labor activists from the hong kong confederation of trade unions gathered wednesday at a local foxconn office.

they held up paper cutouts of people and asked the company to improve its management, said chan chiuwai, a protester at the site.

"military-style discipline on the workforce has created unbearable pressure among workers. we are urging the contractor to improve working con-ditions and relations between managers and workers, as well as among workers," he said.

xinhua reported wednesday that multiple investigations carried out by local authorities have ruled out a direct connection between the employees' deaths and foxconn's management techniques.

the company started playing music on its assembly line this month to relieve some of the workers' stress, and it is also recruiting more than 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers, and a number of psychiatrists. it also even installed three-meter-tall fences around dormitory buildings to stop employees from jumping.

in addition to the counselors, foxconn even went as far as to invite monks from wutai mountain to dispel misfortune among its employees.

foxconn is part of taiwan's hon hai precision industry co, the world's largest maker of consumer electronics for companies that include apple, nokia and sony.

fan fumin, a professor of psychology at tsinghua university, argued in an interview with china central television that the suicide rate among foxconn employees, which has climbed to about two or three per 100,000, is not that high compared with the latest data released by the world health organization, that says the average suicide rate in china is 13 per 100,000 men and 14.8 per 100,000 women.

yu guoliang, a professor of social psychology at renmin university of china, told the global times that the spate of suicides was triggered by imitation.

"youngsters are easily affected by others and take extreme actions when they live in an enclosed environment and lack communication with different people," yu said.

"china is undergoing a huge societal transformation. some of its people can easily get lost given such a fast pace of development," yu said. "once their expectations, and sometimes illusions, can't be satisfied, they are very prone to abnormal mental states."