Tesco PLC is facing a UK lawsuit brought by Burmese migrants in Thailand, who claim that one of the supermarket giant’s former clothing suppliers used their forced labor, lawyers said on Monday.
“Burmese migrants were made to work up to 99 hours a week on unlawful wages and in forced labor conditions at a Thailand factory making clothes for Tesco’s F&F fashion range,” said law firm Leigh Day, which represents the 130 claimants.
The claimants are demanding compensation from Tesco and its Thai subsidiary at the time, Ek-Chai, which it sold in 2020.
Photo: Reuters
They accuse the companies of being “unjustly enriched at the expense of the adult workers.”
The suit would also target Intertek, the insurance and auditing group that inspected the factory where the alleged forced labor took place.
If a settlement is not reached, the case is to be pursued in the High Court in London, the legal firm said in a statement.
The workers were employed in the VK Garments factory in Mae Sot, northwest Thailand, between 2017 and 2020, where they cut, made and packed garments to be sold in Thailand.
They were paid a maximum of ￡4.00 (US$4.86) per day, and claim they worked at a relentless pace for seven days a week and lived in tiny dormitories where they slept on a concrete floor.
Tesco on Monday said in a statement that the claims were “incredibly serious,” and that if it had “identified issues like this at the time they took place, we would have ended our relationship with this supplier immediately.”
Although Tesco was not involved in the day-to-day running of the factory, it said that it “would continue to urge” its former supplier “to reimburse employees for any wages they’re owed.”
Compensation has so far only been awarded by the Thai courts, and only for severance pay.
Intertek also said the allegations were serious, but that it would not comment while legal proceedings were ongoing.
Separately, 10 investment companies with assets totaling about ￡800 billion, including Schroders and Quilter Cheviot, on Monday signed a joint appeal calling for UK food retailers and the government to be increasingly vigilant about forced migrant labor in British agriculture.
Many migrant workers in the UK have had to pay large travel costs and “excessive fees to agents and middlemen,” often finding themselves saddled with debts, they said.
The UK’s main farming union early this month warned that the UK was heading for a food-supply crisis, mainly due to a lack of visas to bring in seasonal workers, who are in short supply after Brexit.
The government on Friday announced plans to increase the number of seasonal visas available next year from a maximum of 40,000 to 45,000, with the possibility of an additional 10,000 if needed.
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