Burma

Migrant work on the Thai border
Unable to work in Burma, thousands of Burmese men and women work in factories in Thailand where they are routinely underpaid and abused without legal protection or consequences for the employers. For example in June 2003 the King Body Concept factory sacked and repatriated 420 Burmese migrant workers for demanding their legal rights. The immigration office simply sent them back to Burma without any investigation of the dispute at the factory.

The Asian Human Rights Commission received more recent information about problems from the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association and the MAP Foundation of gross violations of Thailand’s labour law on the Thai side of the border between Burma and Thailand at two workplaces in Mae Sot.

At the Kong Lian Thai Knitting (1,000 workers) and the Por Thai Sun (2) (65 workers) workers were forced to fulfil long working days, paid less than the Thai legal minimum wage, were denied access to labour protection representation, forced to leave their tied accommodation, and summarily dismissed without notice or reason.

Around 700 women and 300 men working at the Thai/Chinese owned Kong Lian Thai factory were forced to work for 48 hours for 115 baht (less than US$3). They also have to pay 300 baht per month for work permits.

When the workers complained the manager refused demands for wage rises and when they refused to return to work, he called the police who questioned the workers, after which the workers were denied the rice allowance they were previously provided.
When the workers sought protection from the labour and welfare office, an official told them to go back to work and accept the managers’ conditions, saying the office could not seek compensation for them.

Asian Human Rights Commission bulletin, 10 November 2004

Unocal settles for human rights abuse
Although a court in June 2004 ruled that US energy giant Unocal was not directly liable for human rights abuse in the construction of an oil pipeline, the transnational corporation (TNC) announced its decision to settle out of court on 13 December rather than defend itself in court in June 2005. The June court agreed with Unocal’s argument that it was not directly responsible for human rights abuses committed by the Burmese army, which was involved in the construction of a controversial gas pipeline, but the court also allowed the case to continue, resulting in the success for the villagers who the army press-ganged to construct the pipeline.

Burmese villagers first filed the case in 1996, demonstrating the powerful ability of TNCs to drag out court cases – the tactic is designed to make weak litigants give up legal attempts to secure a kind of justice.

This is the first settlement by a US company under the Alien Tort Claims Act—which allows non-US nationals to sue companies in US courts for alleged violations outside the US. This should encourage other workers to pursue legal routes to win compensation for operating illegal and sweatshop conditions in thousands of US-invested factories across Asia Pacific.
Unocal has a 28 percent stake in the Yadana pipeline and gas production venture operated by French energy TNC Total, Thailand’s PTT, and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Financial Times, 14 December 2004