Foxconn Confirms IPhone City Worker Found Dead

(Bloomberg) --

Foxconn is helping police investigate the off-campus death of a worker employed at its “iPhone City” manufacturing complex in central China.

The company said a male employee was found dead on Monday outside an apartment building in Zhengzhou, an important production hub for Apple Inc.’s flagship device. The city’s one of the key locations where Foxconn, operating as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has been working to get plants back up to speed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The company also said that there are no confirmed Covid-19 cases on any of its campuses.

“We are deeply saddened by this loss and have extended our condolences to the family of the employee. We are working with the Foxconn Labor Union and others to provide the family with the support they need at this very difficult time,” Foxconn Technology Group said in a statement, adding that the individual had been employed by the company since December.

Foxconn issued its statement after activist organization China Labor Watch posted about the worker’s death. The company did not confirm the cause of the man’s death. A spate of suicides among Foxconn workers first brought its name to global attention a decade ago. An Apple Inc. spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Speaking in a separate conference call on Tuesday, Hon Hai Chairman Young Liu and Chief Financial Officer David Huang told investors and media the company’s factories in mainland China were expected to be running at full seasonal capacity by the end of March. They are currently operating at about half of that, the company said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net;Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at mgurman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Vlad Savov, Colum Murphy

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