On Wednesday, Microsoft said it was conducting an investigation into a possible threat of a mass suicide by workers at a Chinese Xbox 360 factory run by Foxconn. Now a new report from the Wall Street Journal has both Microsoft and Foxconn claiming that the worker dispute at the plant, located in Wuhan, China, has now been resolved.
Microsoft said in a statement that the workers at the plant were protesting "staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions." Foxconn said the protest happened on January 4 and was led by 150 of the plant's workers who were told that team members in a business unit were being moved to another unit located on the same campus.
Foxconn added that after talks with company executives and local government and labor officials, 45 of the workers decided to resign while the others returned to work at the plant. Neither Microsoft nor Foxconn commented on the earlier mass suicide reports.
In 2010, a number of Foxconn employees in China did in fact commit suicide at work as reports came in of poor working conditions and low pay at those plants. Foxconn reportedly made Foxconn workers sign anti-suicide contracts in 2011.
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