Retail in Asia

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Taiwan’s Hon Hai turns to counsellors, monks as employee suicides mount

Hon Hai Group, the Taiwan-based maker of Apple Inc. iPhones and Hewlett-Packard Co. computers, said it is recruiting mental-health professionals and building leisure facilities at its Chinese factories after at least seven employee suicides this year.

The deaths underscore the need to improve the quality of life for Chinese factory workers, say groups including China Labor Watch and China Labour Bulletin.

Hon Hai has deployed 100 counsellors and its health division plans to work more closely with local governments and academic institutions to support its 800,000 workers in China, Edmund Ding, a spokesman at the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, said by phone on Sunday.

(Source: BusinessWeek)