A plant of Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group in east China's coastal city of Yantai Friday said it has agreed to pay housing fund for its 80,000 workers.

It said in a statement that it was working on the details.

The Economic Information Daily, a newspaper run by Xinhua, reported Friday that Foxconn did not pay the housing accumulation fund for its workers in Yantai plant, which would amounts to 200 million yuan (US$29.3 million) per year.

According to regulations, the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer should pay half of the housing fund, which is 10 to 24 percent of the average monthly wage in the previous year. The workers pay the other half.

The housing accumulation fund can be reclaimed by workers when they purchase a home.

The Yantai plant started operations in March 2004 and Foxconn has invested US$1.4 billion of a total pledged US$3 billion in it.

It is not immediately known whether housing allowance will be paid to workers at other plants. Foxconn has 800,000 employees in China's mainland, including 430,000 in its massive Shenzhen plant.

Foxconn Wednesday announced a 30-percent pay increase for workers at all its Chinese mainland plants starting June for what it claimed were "rising consumer prices and living costs and its corporate performance."

The pay rise came after 10 workers killed themselves and three attempted suicide at Foxconn's Shenzhen plant this year.

The basic salary for assembly line workers was raised from 900 yuan (US$132) to 1,200 yuan per month, it said in a statement.

Foxconn hoped the pay hike would help employees increase incomes while reducing overtime, and have enough time for leisure activities, it said.

Foxconn is part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and makes computers, game consoles and mobile phones for companies including Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Nokia, and Apple.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2010)