Thailand cracks down on exploitative factory
In a rare intervention, the Thai Labor Ministry has stepped in to stop the exploitation of migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar at a seafood factory in the country’s south, correspondence obtained by the Post reveals. The ministry found the Phatthana Seafood factory, in Songkhla province, which employs about 600 Cambodian workers, had breached at least three provisions of Thailand’s labor laws. In a letter to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in July, the ministry said it found Phatthana had withheld workers’ passports and deducted fees from salaries to pay a third-party recruitment firm, in breach of labor regulations. … Phatthana, a big global seafood supplier with clients that include the US retail giant Walmart, is a subsidiary of the Thai conglomerate PTN Group.
