Family seeks Foxconn benefits

The father of a Foxconn engineer whose son was paralyzed in a workplace accident has accused the electronics giant of trying to cheat his family out of compensation.

Zhang Tingzhen, 25, fell from a ladder while fixing a light at the company’s factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Oct 26, 2011.

Zhang Tingzhen, 25, an employee of Taiwan company Foxconn, is fed by his mother at the Shenzhen No 2 People's Hospital. Zhang had nearly half of his brain surgically removed after surviving an electric shock at a Foxconn plant. He has lost all of his memory. Huang Yuli / China Daily

His colleague, Diao Liangyou, said Zhang suffered an electric shock and was not wearing protective gloves.

Surgeons at Shenzhen Longhua People’s Hospital and Shenzhen No 2 People’s Hospital had to operate five times to save Zhang’s life, removing almost half of his brain.

He is now in a rehabilitation ward at Shenzhen No 2 People’s Hospital, and his sister, Zhang Hongling, said he cannot speak or walk.

“He used to be very smart and was an electro-mechanical engineer. He learned computer science by himself,” she said on Thursday. “Now he doesn’t recognize a simple word.”

The family is battling Taiwan-based Foxconn over the accident and compensation. A case has been filed with Shenzhen’s Longhua district labor arbitration panel and will be heard on Oct 24.

According to Zhang Guangde, the paralyzed worker’s father, the company is saying that his son was employed by its factory in Huizhou, Guangdong, where compensation for an industrial accident is much lower than it is in Shenzhen.