Foxconn: No more suicide pay; Taiwan robot plants an option

Since the eruption of bad publicity from earlier this week, Foxconn has reversed direction on suicide payments to workers' families.

Meanwhile, the company's explicit plan is to pass the cost of employee wage increases to its customers such as Apple, Dell and Sony.

And, in response to massive criticism, Foxconn honco Terry Gou revealed at a shareholder meeting that the company would shift some factory operations to Taiwan, on the basis of authorities there offering attractive labor terms and other concessions at a number of planned free trade zones.

Interestingly, Foxconn already owns a plant on Taiwan that produces robotic arms; the company indicated that automated production lines to replace human workers in Taiwan and Vietnam are a definite possibility.

Industry experts are suggesting that all this labor unrest will serve to bring China to a long overdue political and economic crossroads.