Myanmar workers file Bt46m claims against Betagro

These workers worked for a poultry farm which was a supplier of Betagro. On August 1, the Lopburi Department of Labour Protection and Welfare ordered the farm to pay compensation worth Bt1.7 million. 

The workers filed the lawsuit as they were not content with the compensation. They complained against alleged abuses for five years at the farm, which included below-market wages and absence of overtime payments. They also allege unlawful deduction of salaries, threats of further deductions, confiscation of personal identity documents and limited freedom of movement. Workers allege they left the farm only for 2 hours a week for an accompanied market visit.

In a statement by the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) which assisted the workers for months, Betagro was named in the litigation because "it has failed to respond positively to both requests to ensure emergency accommodation and living support for the workers after they resigned from the farm in late June 2016 and also to requests that adequate compensation is provided to the workers following acknowledgement it purchased from the allegedly abusive farm".

Meanwhile, MWRN said, the Director General of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare has denied the severity of abuses alleged by the workers in this case insisting it was just a labour dispute between workers and their employer and not a case of forced labour, human trafficking, overwork or unlawful document retention.