国内英语新闻:Guangdong Party chief urges companies to care more for employees after Foxconn suicides

GUANGZHOU, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Communist Party chief of south China's Guangdong Province Wang Yang on Saturday called for companies to improve management and care more for their employees after 13 workers of Shenzhen-based Foxconn attempted suicides this year, which resulted in 10 deaths.

Wang Yang, secretary of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, told a conference in Shenzhen that the Party, government organizations and Foxconn must "work together and take effective measures to prevent similar tragedies from happening again."

"Labor unions in private firms should be improved to facilitate better working conditions and more harmonious relations between workers and employers," Wang said.

He also called on young employees to cherish their precious lives, as the suicidal employees were mostly born in the 1980s or 1990s, who had weak self-adjustment capability under emotional, living, or working pressures.

More recreational and sports activities should be held among workers to enhance communications and more efforts should be made to help them ease work pressure, Wang said.

"Economic development should be people-oriented," he said.

Foxconn is part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and makes computers, game consoles and mobile phones for companies including Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp. Nokia Corp, and Apple Inc.

Of Foxconn's 800,000 employees in China's mainland, 430,000 are based in Shenzhen. They work shifts and live inside the massive factory complex.