Microsoft is currently investigating a report of a threatened mass suicide at a Foxconn Technology Group plant in southern China. The Foxconn plant, which produces parts for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles and parts for other major technology companies, suffered a rash of employee suicides in 2010 in a dispute over worker welfare. In this case, employees are apparently upset over “staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions.” A director at rights group China Labor Bulletin told Bloomberg Businessweek that “suicide is a common way for Chinese workers to draw employers’ attention to grievances.”
