Foxconn has been described as a “labor camp” that severely violates China’s labour laws and abuses workers physically and mentally, in a research report jointly produced by 20 universities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland. The 83-page report draws on interviews with more than 1,800 workers from 12 Foxconn-owned factories in nine Chinese cities. It found fresh evidence that the Taiwanese company forces assembly-line employees to work double or triple the legal limit on overtime. It describes a Spartan management style, extensive employment of teenage students, and failure to report a considerable number of industrial injuries for which workers were unable to receive statutory compensation. It found that at least 17 Foxconn workers had attempted to commit suicide since January – of whom 13 died – rather than the 14 suicide attempts widely reported by the Hong Kong media. In a joint open letter, researchers from the 20 universities urged Terry Gou – Chairman of Foxconn’s Taiwanese parent company, Hon Hai Precision Industry – to respect workers’ legal rights and fulfil the company’s social responsibilities. The researchers reported that employees were forced to work 80 to 100 hours of overtime per month. Under China’s labor law, the legal limit on overtime is 36 hours a month. Tens of thousands of teenage vocational school students, many without the protection of labor contracts or statutory industrial insurance, work under the same conditions in Foxconn’s factories, the South China Morning Post reports. Foxconn has for the second time this year increased the salaries of workers at its giant Shenzhen plant. In June, Foxconn increased salaries by 30%, from CNY900 to CNY1,200 and now raised them further to CNY2,000. The legal minimum wage in Shenzhen is CNY1,100 per month.