A group of Myanmar migrants is seeking 46 million baht in compensation from one of the country's largest food exporters over allegations of forced labour on a chicken farm.

Allegations against the country's multi-billion-dollar poultry industry are mounting at a time when authorities are still trying to combat abuses in the seafood sector, which has gained global notoriety for using trafficked labour and subjecting boat crews to slave-like conditions.

But the poultry industry, which exports around a third of its broiler meat to Europe, has largely avoided scrutiny.

Fourteen migrant workers on Friday filed a court case demanding compensation for being overworked and underpaid on a chicken farm in Lop Buri, said the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN), which helped them launch the case.

The labourers said they were forced to work gruelling 20-hour days that included sleeping in chicken-rearing areas on the farm that supplied meat to Betagro Group -- a conglomerate with customers around the world.

Their suit, filed at the Region 1 Labour Court in Saraburi, demands compensation from Betagro, supplier Thammakaset Farm 2, and Thai officials, said Andy Hall of MWRN.

While Betagro cut ties with the farm after the workers' allegations first emerged in June, it said in a statement on Friday that their court case was not supported by the facts.

Mr Hall said the company had refused to provide adequate assistance to the workers since the stories of mistreatment on the farm first surfaced.

"We need to push this case to hold Betagro responsible for what's happening in their supply chain," he told AFP.

Thailand's seafood sector -- for years marred by gruesome stories of abuse -- is far "more aware" of the labour issues in its factories and fleets, he added.

"The chicken industry has managed to avoid this attention. ... many companies are still not paying the minimum wage and the workers are essentially powerless," Mr Hall said.

The 14 workers also alleged unlawful salary deductions were made and said they were only permitted to leave the farm for two hours a week on a monitored market visit.

The isolation of the chicken farms has helped shield the sector from scrutiny, according to rights groups.

In its statement, Betagro said findings from two different formal investigations pointed to the same conclusion that the employer did not act in a way that could be deemed human trafficking or forced labour.

The investigations by the Lop Buri office of the Labour Protection and Welfare Office and the Office of the Human Rights Commission showed no signs of illegal detention of workers were found, nor were there any seizures of passports as alleged, said the statement.

No violations of the human rights or the anti-human trafficking law were found in these investigations either, it added.

"Betagro Group had taken this opportunity to step up its efforts to better control labour management in the industry, starting with working together with state agencies to improve awareness among the company's contracted farmers about the standards of labour management," said the statement.

The company also vowed to speed up checks on its contracted farmers' compliance with the labour law "and to promptly correct any misconduct detected", said the statement.

Source:
courtesy of BANGKOK POST

by BANGKOK POST

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