Multiple Suicide Attempts Reported at Chinese Factory in the Same Week
BY JOHN FENG ON 4/28/22
A worker at a car plant in central China said four fellow employees had attempted suicide in the space of one week, with local authorities on Wednesday confirming the death of at least one man.
An anonymous whistleblower at the BYD Auto factory in the Yuhua district of Changsha told Chinese news outlet Baixing Guanzhu that all four workers were young new hires. The latest incident happened on April 26, while the previous attempts were on April 19 and 25, she said.
In all the incidents—first a man and a woman, followed by separate cases each involving a man—the employees jumped or tried to leap from the rooftop of their staff dormitory, the whistleblower told the channel affiliated with Guizhou Radio and Television in southwest China.
"Everyone working in the plant knows, including the one at 10 p.m. on [April] 25 and another one on [April] 26 after 12 p.m., nearly 1 p.m.," she said in the report that aired Wednesday. "There have been three cases within the past week."
A BYD Auto booth at the Wuhan Motor Show in Hubei, China is seen in this stock image. Police in the central Chinese city of Changsha are investigating a string of attempted suicides involving workers at a local BYD Auto plant authorities said on April 27, 2022.GETTY IMAGES
Local law enforcement told Baixing Guanzhu that it could publicly verify the cases on April 25 and 26. The man who jumped on Monday passed away before the police arrived on the scene, while the man on Tuesday was successfully talked down, an unnamed spokesperson told the channel.
An investigation is ongoing, she noted, but said she couldn't comment on the April 19 case. The condition of the two individuals said to have been involved was unclear.
BYD Auto, which is owned by Shenzhen-headquartered BYD Co. Ltd., is yet to comment on the matter. BYD's head office didn't respond to Newsweek's request for comment before publication.
Local law enforcement told Baixing Guanzhu that it could publicly verify the cases on April 25 and 26. The man who jumped on Monday passed away before the police arrived on the scene, while the man on Tuesday was successfully talked down, an unnamed spokesperson told the channel.
An investigation is ongoing, she noted, but said she couldn't comment on the April 19 case. The condition of the two individuals said to have been involved was unclear.
BYD Auto, which is owned by Shenzhen-headquartered BYD Co. Ltd., is yet to comment on the matter. BYD's head office didn't respond to Newsweek's request for comment before publication.
Publicly listed BYD has a presence in Europe and the United States. It produces electric vehicles including trucks and buses. It also owns BYD Electronics, an assembler and phone parts maker.
According to reports, the company has been involved in nearly three dozen labor disputes. Last November, Shanghai-based website The Paper reported the sudden death of a 36-year-old male employee of 12 years who was found in his apartment in Xi'an, northwest China.
The man's family linked his death to overwork. His October work logs showed 26 days in which he worked around 12 hours, exceeding the limits stipulated by China's labor laws, the report said. China officially mandates an eight-hour workday, with overtime capped at 11 hours per shift, and no more than such 12 days a month.
BYD Auto offered the worker's family compensation of 200,000 yuan ($30,260).
On Wednesday, BYD—short for "Build Your Dreams"—reported first-quarter net earnings of 808 million Chinese yuan ($122.27 million), up 240.59 percent from the same period last year, thanks to the sales of electric vehicles.
April 28
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