The link between employment conditions and suicide: a study of the electronics sector in China
This report is the product of the combined efforts of the Economic Rights Institute and Electronics Watch, published in November 2018.
Note to the reader from report authors, Economic Rights Institute and Electronics Watch:
'It is not our intention to suggest the problem of employee suicide is more or less serious in Chinese electronics versus other countries or industries. Such conclusions would require evidence beyond the findings represented here.
Furthermore, we wish to underline that every suicide is likely a response to multiple stresses. When responding to employee suicides, we should determine whether or not employment conditions contributed to the loss of life through a review of available evidence. Employers should not be held responsible for every suicide of their employees, and we should resist evidence to dramatize incidents of suicide to attack employers. We anonymise the results of this report to divert attention away from any single employer and to promote wider discussion of the issue.
We urge others to build on this study to consider how employment conditions might contribute to suicides. Positively, we believe this report is galvanizing new efforts to promote worker wellbeing only possible with the support of industry and government. We urge industry and government to work inclusively with civil society and independent experts to fully address their role and responsibilities to prevent suicides linked to employment conditions.'
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