Disturbingly, Kotaku [as sited by GamesIndustryBiz] are reporting about 300 workers at a Foxconn manufacturing plant in China who reportedly threatened mass suicide this past week after a request for a pay increase was denied.
GIBiz point out that Foxconn is a massive producer of Western electronics, including products for Nintendo, Apple, Sony and Microsoft, and Kotaku report that this particular plant had been working on assembly lines constructing Xbox 360s.
The workers were offered a choice between continued work or compensated dismissal. Many of the workers reportedly chose to take the pay-offs, but the company later rescinded the pay, resulting in the group of disgruntled workers taking to the plant’s roofs and threatening to jump.
While this bizarre event was reportedly concluded peacefully, GIBiz’s article also mentions that the Foxconn group is said to have previously installed ‘anti-suicide netting’ in some plants, after at least 12 workers ended their own lives in protest against working conditions and treatment by the company.
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