Foxconn's recruitment drive in Henan falling apart: report
Staff Reporter 2012-10-02 15:27
New recruits at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, Henan province. (Photo/Xinhua)
Electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn's aggressive recruitment campaign in China's central Henan province is falling apart, reports the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily.
From the beginning of August, the Henan provincial government launched a drive to recruit 200,000 workers for Taiwan-based Foxconn, the world's largest manufacturer of electronic components best known for manufacturing Apple's iPhones and iPads.
The workers were earmarked for Foxconn's massive factory in the Henan capital Zhengzhou, which is reportedly aiming for a daily capacity of 200,000 Apple smartphones and an annual production value of 20 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion).
The scale of the recruitment project forced the provincial government to step in and take over with an aggressive campaign driven by government subsidized incentives, with specific recruitment quotas delegated to each of the province's 18 cities, which have in turn passed on the responsibility to their various townships and villages.
Officials from all levels of government within the province are said to be facing increasing pressure to meet their targets. Responsible officials who do not meet their recruitment numbers are reportedly chastised and penalized, with one village chief claiming that he would be sacked if he did not recruit enough people to satisfy his quota, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
The pressure has driven some local officials to heavy-handed tactics, such as delegating the recruitment to impoverished families or Communist Party hopefuls with the threat of taking away their government benefits or opportunity to join the party should they fail to meet quotas.
One village official told the paper: "When we get forced by those above us, we have to force others."
Despite such questionable tactics, the recruitment drive has reportedly been largely unsuccessful. Yichuan county, for instance, has only recruited about 500 people, which is only half of its quota.
The county has already reduced its requirements — initially, workers had to be 40 years old or younger and be able to recognize the English alphabet; now the age limit has been upped to 45 and workers simply have to be literate and able-bodied.
The Yichuan government had also been paying a 500 yuan (US$80) — and later 1,000 yuan (US$160) — reward to each potential recruit who agreed to work at the Zhengzhou factory on a trial basis, but the strategy has failed to attract workers. A number of new recruits reportedly even "escaped" back to their hometowns after arriving on site.
Local official Wang Jun told the Southern Metropolis Daily that the government initiative has not been effective because most people who want to work are already in jobs with similar or better pay. Many workers in village construction teams make as much money as they would at Foxconn, Wang said, adding that a lot of people from the younger generation are no longer willing to work hard, and that a salary of 2,000 yuan (US$320) a month to work at Foxconn is simply not enough to entice them.
One impoverished northern county in Henan with a population of 1.2 million was reportedly tasked with finding 10,000 workers. Each worker successfully recruited by a village would earn officials a 150 yuan (US$24) bonus, while shortfalls would incur a fine of 200 yuan per person, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily. That county canceled its campaign in September after only recruiting around 3,000-4,000 workers, the paper said, adding that almost all other counties in the province were experiencing similar success rates.
Professor Shi Pu from the Henan University of Economics and Law says the Henan government has already given Foxconn every legal benefit there is to give. The professor questioned the effectiveness of the government's strategy, saying that while the company may have improved GDP figures on paper, it has also cost the government between 12 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) and 15 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) through exclusive assistance initiatives.
The city of Shanqiu, for example, has 60 government officials involved in assisting Foxconn, with many living on-site to provide their services 24 hours a day.
