Escape from lockdown - Foxconn lures employees with bonus payments

iPhone maker Foxconn in China is trying to persuade its employees to stay with bonus payments. The company announced on the WeChat network on Tuesday that it would pay out 400 yuan (55 euros) per day of attendance. Previously, numerous workers at the world's largest iPhone factory had literally fled because the factory premises had been largely sealed off since mid-October due to a corona outbreak.

Around 200,000 people work at the Foxconn factory in central China's Zhengzhou. The Taiwanese company announced a "long battle" against the coronavirus but did not provide details on the number of employees infected and quarantined. Rumors of tens of thousands of infections circulated on the Internet.

Foxconn pledged to "work with the government to organize staff and vehicles." Also, employees could leave the company if they so wished. At the weekend, however, numerous videos were published online in which dozens of employees, some with suitcases, left the factory premises by climbing over fences. Local authorities asked the workers who fled to register and to quarantine for several days.

The company promised the remaining employees an additional payment on top of the daily bonus if they are at the factory for at least 15 days at a time in November. If they stay the whole month, the bonus can increase up to 15,000 yuan (around 2070 euros).

China still has a very strict zero-Covid policy. Lockdowns and plant closures due to small outbreaks of the corona virus are burdening the economy. Nevertheless, President Xi Jinping recently announced that he wanted to stick to the previous corona policy. According to official figures, more than 2,000 new cases were reported nationwide for the second day in a row.

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