Police raid Mae Sot factory after Tesco labour abuse allegations
Immigration police and labour officials investigated a clothing factory in Tak’s Mae Sot district on Tuesday following reports of slavery-like working conditions.
Reuters on Monday reported that Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, is facing legal action from a group of Myanmar migrant workers, alleging dire working conditions at a Mae Sot factory that made clothes for the retailer’s F&F range.
A total of 146 workers, 140 Burmese and six Thai, allege they were made to work up to 99 hours per week on unlawful wages with forced labour conditions at the VK Garments (VKG) factory in Mae Sot between 2017 and 2020.
Deputy national police chief General Surachet Hakparn said on Tuesday that he checked the VKG factory’s working conditions and talked with some of the workers. He was told that the workers’ claim for unpaid wages was also at the appeal stage in the Thai labour court.
Surachet said police and Department of Labour Protection and Welfare (DLPW) officials also collected evidence and interviewed workers who said they were forced to work longer than legal hours. He threatened legal action if the employer is found to have broken the law.
DLPW officials also contacted the Provincial Industry Office to find temporary jobs for workers who want to stay in Thailand while they wait for the court verdict.
Britain’s Guardian newspaper has exposed abusive working conditions in Mae Sot in a series of reports over the past few days.
Charit Meesit, a lawyer representing former VKG workers in the Thai court, told the Guardian that authorities “know what’s going on but they turn a blind eye” and that the country lacks “proper enforcement” of its labour laws.
“It’s an open secret that Mae Sot is notorious for abusing workers,” he told the newspaper. “Even Burmese workers know Mae Sot is notorious but they are willing to go because they know that relatively the pay they can get is still better than they can get in Myanmar. They don’t care about the minimum wage in Thailand, they just know that working in Thailand is better paid than in Myanmar. That’s why they keep their mouths shut.”
VKG called the allegations “hearsay”, refusing to comment further amid the ongoing court case.
