In an attempt to help stop employee suicides Foxconn, a company that builds iPhones and iPods for Apple, apparently started forcing new employees to sign contracts saying they wouldn’t try to kill themselves. The company has been dealing with bad press following a series of employee suicides over past year.
Foxconn factory managers started pushing the no-suicide contracts on workers after the number of employee suicides started climbing about 16 months ago, according to The Daily Mail. Along with contracts, the company executives had safety nets installed outside employee housing to help prevent deaths from jumping off of ledges.
Word of the contracts surfaced as part of an investigation conducted by the Center for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM). The organization also said its investigation uncovered issues where employees were forced to work 13 days in a row without a day off, and employees working far in excess of the maximun 36 hours a month overtime.
Apple has audited Foxconn’s facilities and requires contractors to comply with its own rules for fair employee treatment. Assuming the SACOM report is accurate, Foxconn doesn’t seem to be in full compliance with Apple’s humane treatment requirements.
The anti-suicide contracts also state that employee’s families are blocked from seeking large compensation for should a worker kill themselves.
Apple and Foxconn have not commented on the anti-suicide contract reports.