Apple to share cost of improving Foxconn factories

Apple and Foxconn will share the initial costs of improving labor conditions at the latter’s factories. Reuters reports that Foxconn chairman Terry Gou did not give a figure for the costs, but did way that he regards recent criticism of the working conditions at his company’s factories as unfair. “We’ve discovered that this (improving factory conditions) is not a cost. It is a competitive strength,” Gou told reporters on Thursday after the ground-breaking ceremony for a new China headquarters in Shanghai. “I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs.” Foxconn, which assembles a number of Apple products including the iPhone and iPad, raised wages for its workers by 16 to 25 in February, and reached an agreement with Apple in March to hire tens of thousands of new workers in an effort to reduce overtime work.