Workers at Foxconn factories in Shenzhen have greeted the latest announcement of big pay rises from October with disbelief, with most saying the offer is too good to believe and will be even harder to receive.
Foxconn - a major supplier for many of the world's top electronic gadget manufacturers, including Apple and Dell - announced on Sunday that production line and senior staff in Shenzhen would be eligible for performance-based pay rises from October 1 that would boost pay levels by more than 120 per cent from those that workers enjoyed last month.
It posted notices at its Shenzhen plants yesterday saying that the basic wage for first-line employees and their line leaders and supervisors would rise to 2,000 yuan (HK$2,284) a month from October 1.
It is the third pay rise by Foxconn in the past month. The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, has run articles advocating pay rises for four weeks.
The pay rises are part of Foxconn's response to a series of suicides at its Shenzhen factories this year. Ten workers have jumped to their deaths and three have attempted suicide. The company is now employing thousands of psychological counsellors.
A spokesman for Hon Hai, Foxconn's parent company in Taiwan, said yesterday that the latest pay rise would be given to existing employees who passed a three-month performance evaluation. New employees would be eligible after they passed a probation period of three months, during which they would earn 1,200 yuan a month.
