By Chris Chang, posted Jul 19, 2011 at 5:51 AM, 788 views,

BREAKING: Another Foxconn Employee Falls to Death After Drinking Beer (updated)

We do not know what to comment on this. Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Tuesday (July 19) morning that a Foxconn employee died after falling from a dormitory at the company’s plant in Shenzhen. Here’s what we know so far, according to media reports.

UPDATE: Foxconn Vice President Terry Cheng attributed the death to a possible accident, citing that the employee had only worked two hours of overtime since he joined Foxconn on June 27. Here’s what Cheng said to the media after attending a signing ceremony in Taipei,

“Based on my preliminary understanding, the employee is not a staff on the production line, but works as an operator in our research department. The employee is still under a training program and has just worked overtime for only two hours during the past 20 days, so we think it is irrelevant to working pressure.”

And he added:

“Prior to the accident, the employee had dined with 20 to 30 other colleagues, and they were likely drunk after the gathering.”

First, you need to know that the case is still under investigation. The victim, Cai, is a 21-year-old young man who served as an assistant at Foxconn, after being recruited in late June. Reports said that Cai he fell from the sixth floor of the Baimingyuan Dormitory Building B at the North Gate of Foxconn’s location in Baoan District of the city, at 3 am on Monday (July 18).

Cai has a cousin. Cai’s cousin was reported as saying that Cai had participated in the birthday party of a friend and drank some beer with friends. At the end of the party, Cai was conscious and he even loaded a friend into a car. He was still in a good mood on Monday before the tragedy. However, Cai’s cousin received a phone call next morning about Cai’s death. Cai’s family members had not yet accepted the death, as Cai was usually cheerful and outgoing.

At the meantime, a spokesperson for Foxconn, surnamed Dai, had made no comments on the tragedy. Even the local police had made no comments on the incident too. And interestingly, the original report on Shenzhen Economic Daily has been removed on its digital newspaper.

Reason? We are guessing it is removed to protect the good image of Shenzhen since the city is hosting an International multi-sport event, Summer Universiade 2011. The event will be Shenzhen’s major event for this year, where a large amount of tourists will be coming over to the city.

So, more than ten workers have committed suicide by jumping from the factory and dormitory buildings of the company since 2009. This. Is. Terrible.

Source: Shenzhen Economics Daily (dead link, see digital newspaper here) via Global Times
More Coverage: Focus Taiwan