Thai garment factory investigated by Starbucks after illegal wages expose

[webfact]

Thai garment factory investigated by Starbucks after illegal wages expose

By Nanchanok Wongsamuth

 

Workers show Starbucks aprons at a dormitory near a factory in Thailand's Mae Sot district in August 2019. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Nanchanok Wongsamuth

 

MAE SOT, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Garment factories in Thailand that supply to global brands such as coffee giant Starbucks and sports gear maker Bauer Hockey are under investigation after an expose found workers illegally underpaid in a region described as a "black hole".

 

The Thomson Reuters Foundation interviewed 26 workers - all migrants from neighbouring Myanmar - employed at four factories in Thailand's western region of Mae Sot who said they were paid less than the daily minimum wage of 310 Thai baht ($10.15).

 

Located 500 km (310 miles) from the capital Bangkok, Mae Sot is the main entry point into western Thailand and a trade hub home to hundreds of factories and tens of thousands of migrant workers seeking to make money to send back to their families.

 

Most of the 26 workers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they did not receive wage slips at work yet the MAP Foundation - a non-profit that supports Burmese migrant workers - said it had gathered dozens of their payslips showing illegal underpayment.

 

Some of the workers said they produced aprons for Starbucks - and provided photos of the garments that can be seen worn by baristas at its cafes in Thailand - while others worked at a factory that makes clothing for the U.S.-based Bauer Hockey.

 

The expose raises questions about Thailand's ability to inspect garment factories and protect workers across the country - and a senior government official said he was aware many of those working in Mae Sot were being unlawfully underpaid.

 

Starbucks said it was investigating the findings while Bauer Hockey said it had asked its supplier to look into the matter.

 

Both companies said they required their suppliers to comply with local laws on issues including compensation for workers.

 

"The supplier in question has denied these allegations," said a Starbucks spokeswoman. "We take these claims seriously and are conducting a full investigation."

 

The Starbucks' supplier could not be reached for comment.

 

A spokesman for Bauer Hockey said it had asked the factory in question to investigate and "take all necessary action to immediately bring its compensation practices within compliance".

 

A representative for the factory in Mae Sot supplying Bauer Hockey said it provided many benefits for workers, such as free housing, and covered half of the cost of their work permit fees.

 

The government has been planning to send a taskforce to inspect factories in Mae Sot, said Somboon Trisilanun, deputy director-general of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, which implements labour laws and performs inspections.

 

"We have to admit Mae Sot is a black hole because there are many garment factories that are very hard to inspect," he said.

 

UNDER THE RADAR

Mae Sot, a district in Thailand's Tak province that borders Myanmar and is also part of a special economic zone (SEZ), has 430 registered factories - 40% of which produce garments and textile - employing about 44,500 workers, government data shows.

 

The Tak Province Office of Labour Protection and Welfare said it aimed to inspect 260 factories this year and so far about 50 owners have been ordered to comply with labour laws or risk fines as high as 20,000 baht and/or up to a year in prison.

 

Since 2016 - according to its latest available data - the office has filed 26 lawsuits against companies over issues from not paying the minimum wage to compensating fired workers. Most of these companies ended up paying fines, the office said.

 

But MAP Foundation estimated only half-a-dozen or so of factories in Mae Sot paid minimum wages based on their research and interviews with workers who were reluctant to complain for fear of being fired or factories closing and losing their jobs.

 

"I see Mae Sot as not part of Thailand," said Sutthisak Rungrueangphasuk, a case manager at MAP Foundation. "It's like an area that is not protected by law."

 

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) in Mae Sot said all of its 130 members in the region - predominantly medium and large factories - paid their workers the minimum wage.

 

The introduction of a nationwide daily minimum wage in 2013 has seen wages in Tak almost double from 162 baht.

 

But the wage hike meant many factories now deducted housing, food and work permit costs from workers' salaries - in violation of labour laws - whereas they previously provided such services for free, said Siwanat Petchsringoen, FTI's manager in Mae Sot.

 

Most of the factories that have flouted labour laws - which require employers to pay workers their full salary upfront - are small or medium sized and often fly under the radar, he added.

 

"We are not able to control all (the factories), but we've been communicating about this (issue)," Petchsringoen said.

 

Kunchit Manowarangkoon, head of the Tak Province Office of Labour Protection and Welfare office, said it was hard to inspect smaller factories operating on a short-term basis and with few workers. But he denied the MAP Foundation's claim that less than 10% of factories in Mae Sot paid the minimum wage.

 

Three workers from one factory, however, said they received less than the minimum wage before deductions were taken.

 

At another factory - a Chinese-owned establishment that makes foam mats - three workers said they were forced to sign two payslips - one showing their actual pay of around 4,000 baht a month, and another stating that they earned the minimum wage.

 

TRAPPED

Seamstress Theingi said she earned about 80 baht for a 15-hour day of making children's clothes and aprons for Starbucks.

 

The Burmese migrant, who did not give her real name for fear of losing her job, said she and most of her colleagues only had one day off every 45 days. Thai labour laws require workers to be granted one day of leave for each working week.

 

"I thought Thailand would be better than Myanmar, but when I arrived it was not what I expected," she said at a dormitory near the factory where workers were packed into tiny rooms.

 

"I have felt unhappy and discouraged, but I have to bear the brunt or else I won't have anything to take back home."

 

Many Burmese workers in Mae Sot, such as Phyo Oo Naing, feel trapped and powerless to change their situation with migrant workers not allowed to form labour unions to seek higher pay.

 

He has had to twice borrow money from his family back in Myanmar to survive, does not receive any overtime pay, and last month was only given 15 days of work at his foam mat factory.

 

"I feel taken advantage of," said the worker, who did not give his real name for fear of reprisals. "I want to go back to Myanmar, but now I don't have enough money to travel home."

 

(Reporting by Nanchanok Wongsamuth @nanchanokw; Editing by Kieran Guilbert and Belinda Goldsmith. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-06

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[mok199]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Theingi said she earned about 80 baht for a 15-hour day of making children's clothes and aprons for Starbucks

Life at the bottom of the food chain....sad

[sunnyboy2018]

I hate starsucks. Never use them. I always try to use non corporate,  non international,  non yankee outlets....always try to support local businesses. I read on a London forum Starsucks had closed their oulet on Brixton high St next to the tube station.

[jastheace]

13 minutes ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

I hate starsucks. Never use them. I always try to use non corporate,  non international,  non yankee outlets....always try to support local businesses. I read on a London forum Starsucks had closed their oulet on Brixton high St next to the tube station.

interesting. pls tell us more, why did it close ?????

[Cadbury]

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Kunchit Manowarangkoon, head of the Tak Province Office of Labour Protection and Welfare office, said it was hard to inspect smaller factories operating on a short-term basis and with few workers.

Obviously Kunchit sitting on his clacker in his a/c office all day wouldn't ever get to find out.

80 baht for a 14 hour day? Who would have thought that Thai business would have exploited immigrant labourers to the virtual point of slavery. And you would automatically know the Chinese would be mixed up in it somewhere.

How's your micro management programme going Mr. PM? Would you have any time to look into this one?

You doubt it?.........I thought so!

[Assurancetourix]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The Thomson Reuters Foundation interviewed 26 workers - all migrants from neighbouring Myanmar - employed at four factories in Thailand's western region of Mae Sot who said they were paid less than the daily minimum wage of 310 Thai baht ($10.15).

This is unfortunately the case for millions of non - Thai workers who work in any type of business.
This foundation can go and question the Burmese who work on the fishing boats; they will have the same answers and often with still lower wages when they have (wages);
Thomson Reuters Foundation can also go to question the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who work in the building.
They will also have the same answers.

What the Thai government should do is punish very severely the employers who refuse to take care of WPs of these immigrant workers; who confiscate their passports; who pay them two satang of the hour ..

It's much easier to hit immigrant workers who have no WP than their rotten employers.

[grumbleweed]

55 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

And you would automatically know the Chinese would be mixed up in it somewhere.

Let's not be too economical with the truth 

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

while others worked at a factory that makes clothing for the U.S.-based Bauer Hockey.

...and I suppose Starbucks is also Chinese 

[Cadbury]

2 minutes ago, grumbleweed said:

Let's not be too economical with the truth 

 

...and I suppose Starbucks is also Chinese 

Nice troll but no cigar. 

Either you obviously haven't bothered to read the story right through or you are visually impaired in which case I feel sad for you. 

For your benefit I will shorten it up and explain. The story is not so much about Starbucks but virtual slavery and human rights abuse in some lawless part of the country that is being exploited by Thais and Chinese and God knows who else. 

I hope that helps you understand better.

 

[Colabamumbai]

Should investigate themselves and the low quality coffee they sell. 

[Borzandy]

Thais specialist of slavery.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The government has been planning to send a taskforce to inspect factories in Mae Sot, said Somboon Trisilanun, deputy director-general of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, which implements labour laws and performs inspections

A clear case of dereliction of duty, they now full well what goes on but turn a bling eye to slave labour

[Sydebolle]

I am NOT a fan of Starbucks but the story might be incomplete:

- it is possible, that Starbucks orders garments through a third-party trading office in Bangkok - most likely; to verify Starbuck's stand it would help if they would fully disclose where, from whom and at what price they buy the garments. 

- it is (again most likely) a Thai-internal problem and Thais have been never short of modern slavery. Remember the discussions with the workers on rice fields in Central Thailand or construction workers in Bangkok doing B 60 - 100 for a 12-hours shift carrying upto 100kgs rice sacks and metal rods? 

- the Burmese are, despite being exploited to the fullest, afraid from losing their job; i.e. despite this modern slavery attitude they need the job. The roots there are to be looked up inside Burma

- obviously those workers are exploited all the way. I had Cambodian staff in my restaurant years ago and the labour department showed up more than once hoping to line their pockets.  They left empty-handed as we paid the staff not only more than the minimum but the same pay as the Thais - same salary for same work. 

[MarineEquine]

Exploitation of the poor by the rich. Same as it ever was. 

[grumbleweed]

2 hours ago, Cadbury said:

human rights abuse in some lawless part of the country that is being exploited by Thais and Chinese and God knows who else

Maybe you're cognitively impaired, in which case I feel sorry for you  The exploitation by "*God knows who else" doesn't stop at the employers, neither is the concept of slave labour alien to their customers. By letting greed rule, and not carrying due out diligence, the likes of Starbucks and Bauer Hockey are effectively condoning the practice.

 

*The use of the great wizard in the sky to strengthen an argument is uncommon amongst the intelligentsia. Something you should remember if you wish your ill considered rants to be taken seriously. 

[justin case]

many thai billionaires got rich by slave work done by others

 

same old

[Bangkok Barry]

2 hours ago, Colabamumbai said:

Should investigate themselves and the low quality coffee they sell. 

 

Strange that they are so successful then. What they are doing is giving people what they want. A sensible business model, surely, that has been an enormous success globally. Same as McDonalds and KFC. Hugely popular internationally. I don't use Starbucks personally, and am amused when I sit having my Amazon coffee and watch people opposite paying more than double for their Starbucks.

[Bangkok Barry]

43 minutes ago, grumbleweed said:

By letting greed rule, and not carrying due out diligence, the likes of Starbucks and Bauer Hockey are effectively condoning the practice.

 

Are you suggesting that these companies have their own inspection teams doing what the authorities are too lazy/too incompetent/too corrupt to do? Maybe they should, but acting as a investigative force in a foreign country and stepping on toes is a dangerous thing to do. Instead, what they are doing is taking up the matter after it had been revealed to them. That's okay with me, and that is more than the officials who clearly know about it and do little about it, just a token fine or two.

[Baerboxer]

4 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

This is unfortunately the case for millions of non - Thai workers who work in any type of business.
This foundation can go and question the Burmese who work on the fishing boats; they will have the same answers and often with still lower wages when they have (wages);
Thomson Reuters Foundation can also go to question the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who work in the building.
They will also have the same answers.

What the Thai government should do is punish very severely the employers who refuse to take care of WPs of these immigrant workers; who confiscate their passports; who pay them two satang of the hour ..

It's much easier to hit immigrant workers who have no WP than their rotten employers.

 

European governments and the EU have been banging on about this subject for years. Most large companies have to report on "slave labor" in the CSR sections of their annual reports.

 

All hot wind. Been talking about it for 30+ years. But actually sweet <deleted>-all gets done. Money trumps everything, the whole world over.

[Baerboxer]

43 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Are you suggesting that these companies have their own inspection teams doing what the authorities are too lazy/too incompetent/too corrupt to do? Maybe they should, but acting as a investigative force in a foreign country and stepping on toes is a dangerous thing to do. Instead, what they are doing is taking up the matter after it had been revealed to them. That's okay with me, and that is more than the officials who clearly know about it and do little about it, just a token fine or two.

 

Most large Western MNC's will have strict and specific rules on supplier qualification criteria and carrying out supplier evaluations as part of their supply chain due diligence.

 

If potential suppliers don't meet the required standard they are excluded from bidding. 

 

Starbucks should also be looking at its internal processes and staff performance on how such a supplier was awarded contracts.

[Lemonltr]

80 baht for a 15 hour day?. It's high time for the Thai government to pass a law making firms pay by the hour. It might help little in practice but at least it would demonstrate the will to improve the fate of the poor workers.