Foxconn Profit Down As Scrutiny Forces Corporate Changes

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn saw its profits fall to $509 million from $1.19 billion last quarter. Chairman Terry Gou said this quarter was particularly affected by Foxconn’s recent image problem. Improvements in wages, worker benefits, and education accounted for some of the loss, although new iPad and iPhone 4S manufacturing bolstered income last quarter.

As a reaction to recent popular criticism on various fronts, the company increased wages by 25 percent this year and is planning to open a hospital and language schools for its employees.

Reuters reports that despite the fall in profit, top-rated Foxconn employees cheered vociferously at a party in Gou’s honor.

Some 200 workers from its parent company Foxconn’s plants in China sang, danced and cheered the company’s billionaire founder at a party in Taipei marking the end of an all-expenses paid seven-day holiday the company arranged for top performing staff.

Arguably, they may have been a bit biased.