Burmese at Thai factory hold out for pay today

Wednesday, 13 October 2010 14:41 Thea Forbes

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese migrant workers expect to be paid today in a months-long dispute with a factory in Thailand that has included violence and intimidation by the employer over work and legal documents and denied salaries, a workers’ leader said.

The employees of the Dechapanich Fishing Net Factory in the Thai province of Khon Kaen had on Friday still not received all of their legal documents from their employer, worker leader Min Maung said.

Map Foundation, an NGO advocacy for Burmese workers in Thailand, told Mizzima that the workers delivered a letter to their former employer on Friday declaring that when they had received all documents and salaries for September at the factory – not at the local Thai immigration office – in accordance with Thai labour law, they would leave the area.

Min Maung also told Mizzima yesterday: “We hope that we will receive our salaries tomorrow [today]. We want to receive salaries in front of witnesses.”

Map told Mizzima the employer at Dechapanich had spoken with a lawyer from the Lawyers’ Council of Thailand, who stated that the workers would be paid today at the factory gates.

Min Maung told Mizzima that, “the employer had agreed to return all of our documents in front of MAP Foundation … and Lawyers’ Council [representatives]. But the employer broke that agreement,” he said.

“So, tomorrow [today] we will demand salaries and our documents from the employer in front of the organisations that will accompany us.”

He added that the workers would refuse to leave the factory premises tomorrow if management failed to produce their salaries.

The workers were harassed by motorcyclists wielding guns late on Saturday night, Min Maung said. They had managed to seize one of the motorcycles, and it had since been retrieved by police.

Dechapanich management had refused to give up the workers’ documents, including travel and work permits, which they needed to find work elsewhere, Min Maung said. “Without those documents, we can’t get new jobs. If you were an employer, you would not employ us because we don’t have all of the required documents.”

Map staff told Mizzima that the employer had become increasingly unyielding over the situation in the past week. It had received reports that other prospective employers had approached Dechapanich offering to re-employ all of the workers, but that the previous employer would not agree to the transfer.

Tensions grew last week after the workers were threatened with deportation, Min Maung said.
Early on Thursday, a notice was posted on their dormitories and gun shots were heard outside. They were awake discussing progress of their situation when it happened, he said, adding, “… we won’t give in to their demands [coercion]”.

“After they [management] posted the deportation notice, we stayed in our dormitory the whole night without going to bed … The senior-most security guard fired the shots. Moreover, the chairman and secretary of the supervisory body overseeing the more than 2,000 Burmese workers were also bearing arms and intimidated us,” he said.

The chairman and secretary have been named as Maung Htoo and Naing Oo.

Vans were found near the dormitories apparently waiting to take the workers to immigration, but the drivers were absent, Min Maung added.

Dechapanich’s owner was flouting his influence by attempting to orchestrate the workers’ next destination, and also by charging a huge employment “transfer fee” of up to 10,000 baht (US$335) per worker, Map staff said.

The NGO said: “The current employer does not have the right to choose the next employer or to create barriers for the workers getting jobs. Since the workers have maintained all the legal paperwork, this situation does not require the attention of [the Thai] immigration [department], and MAP hopes the Department of Employment will become involved.”

The Department of Employment in Thailand maintained information on which employers had requested quotas for migrant workers and were in the position to facilitate a smooth process and ensure that the rights of the migrants were protected, Map staff said.

Min Maung said: “We can’t accept that they can do whatever they want to our passports, which are issued under the agreement of two countries.”

He also alluded to his former employer having links to authorities in high positions.

Mizzima reported late last month that when some of the workers labour cards were returned by the employer, it was evident they had been tampered with. With regard to the remaining documents, Min Maung said. “We cannot leave here without them.”