Tesco supermarkets in Thailand have been accused of forced labour

Supermarket giant Tesco is the target of a practice in the UK on behalf of Burmese migrants in Thailand. They may have been victims of forced labor at a former garment manufacturing subcontractor, we learned from the plaintiffs’ attorneys on Monday.

“Burmese migrants were forced to work for up to 99 hours a week for illegal wages and under forced labor conditions in a Thai factory,” said a report by Lee Day, the organization representing them, released on Sunday evening.

In particular Tesco and its Thai subsidiary Ek-Chai were sold in 2020 by Cabinet.

The complaint also targets an insurance and certification committee for Intertech that inspected the factory in question. If an amicable phase is not satisfactory, it will proceed before the High Court, a British court, warns lawyers.

Workers worked at the VK Garments factory in Mae Sot (northwest) between 2017 and 2020 cutting, making or packaging garments intended for sale in Thailand. According to the information on file, the workers were paid a maximum of 4 pounds (approx. 4 fr. 50) a day, worked seven days a week for very high wages and slept on the bare floor in small shelters. Cement.

Tesco responded in a statement on Monday that the revelations were “incredibly serious and had we discovered such issues at the time they occurred we would have immediately terminated our relationship with this supplier”.

Although Tesco is not involved in the day-to-day running of the factory, the group says it “continues to insist” its former supplier “repays wages owed to workers”. The latter have so far only been awarded separation pay by Thai courts.