FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
China Labor Watch (CLW) has obtained information that on May 15, 2013, a female worker at Samsung’s Huizhou factory jumped off the seventh floor of a building, coming just two weeks after workers at a Foxconn factory jumped to their deaths. Based on what workers at the Samsung plant have told CLW, the female worker died from her injuries. But this information has not yet been confirmed with medical officials or the factory.
CLW is still not clear as to the factors that led to this jumping. Wages at the Samsung plant were distributed on May 15, but CLW is unclear if this is related to the incident. CLW has notified Samsung about this information and is currently awaiting a response.
In September 2012, CLW published an investigative report on Samsung’s Huizhou factory that uncovered a number of labor violations, including forced and excessive overtime, extensive labor contract violations, forced work without pay, abuse of underage workers, hiring discrimination based on age, gender, and individual characteristics unrelated to the job, abuse of labor dispatch workers, abuse of student workers, charging dispatch workers inordinately high fees to be hired, lack of worker safety, a lack of a living base wage, and a lack of any effective complaint mechanisms. The full report can be found here.
UPDATE (May 19, 2013)
Photos and information related to this incident in question have been provided by workers to CLW. These images show the deceased female worker's family protesting near the Huizhou Samsung factory. There is also a photo of the girl herself.
According to worker-provided information, the 23-year old girl's name was Hao Qiaoli. On May 15 at 7:10 AM, the girl jumped to her death from her dorm building. Neither her youger brother nor cousin, who were both working at the same factory, received any notification of the death until after 10PM. Other family did not receive notification for 24 hours. Based on this information, Samsung offered economic compensation of 44,655 RMB (over $7,200) to the family for their daughter's death.
Hao Qiaoli began working at Samsung Huizhou in 2008, about five years ago. When asked about their daughter, Qiaoli's father said that she was an outgoing and lively young girl.