Apple contractor Foxconn has started instituting precautionary and even bizarre measures to protect its workers and business in the aftermath of reported nine suicides this year at the company's giant facility in southern China.

Media reports have been leaked that safety nets were installed around the plant's buildings and workers were required to sign affidavits promising not to commit suicide and agreeing that they could be confined to a psychiatric facilities once they showed signs of mental disturbance.

The numerous deaths brought attention on the conditions of millions of Chinese factory workers, where according to labour advocates, long working hours, low wages and tremendous pressures rule every working day.

Hon Hai Precision chairman Terry Gou denied that his company runs 'blood and sweat factories' and even invited reporters on Wednesday to personally check the Foxconn factory. Hon Hai is Foxconn's parent company based in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese technology manufacturer assembles Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Apple products with its main factory based in mainland China and currently maintains about 800,000 workers, which Mr Gou admitted as a large team and not that easy to manage.

Faced with such gigantic task, the South China Morning Post reported that Foxconn employees were being made to work for 12 hours each day and six days a week, as one worker described that "the inside of our workplaces is so tight and depressing that we're not allowed to speak to each other for 12 hours or you'll be reproached by your supervisors."

Another worker said they were treated as machines and complained of fast moving assembly lines with thousands of motherboards to be inspected every day, stressing that all the hard work would only fetch a monthly salary of 2000 Yuan or roughly $US300.

Also, the Southern Metropolis Daily published reports that Foxconn employees were made to sign letters instructing them to seek medical care if they encounter any difficulties or frustrations or allow the company to send them to a 'hospital' once they showed "abnormal mental or physical state for the protection of myself and others."

One worker said that he balked at signing the agreement for fear that "if I bicker with my supervisor, will I be sent to a mental hospital?"

In spite of the grim working conditions, Foxconn continues to attract thousands of applicants to work on its factory as a company representative told the China Daily that about 8000 people apply everyday to secure work on their facility.

In reaction to the spate of suicides on Foxconn, China's Taiwan Affairs Office has announced that it is currently talking with the company for effective measures to be taken in improving the working conditions and safety of its thousands of workers.

The affairs office expressed regrets that deaths have occurred but emphasised that the suicides would not affect China's economic relations with Taiwan.

Meanwhile, in support of the millions of Chinese workers, labour activists based in Hong Kong called on worldwide consumers of Apple to boycott the upcoming next generation of iPhone and the international launch of the recently released iPad, which are both assembled by Foxconn.