In July 2018 a Thai court dismissed charges against 14 migrant workers from Myanmar who had alleged labour abuses in the country’s multimillion-dollar poultry export industry.
The 14 workers, all from Myanmar, filed a complaint in July 2016 against their former employer Thammakaset Farm 2, a poultry farm, which at the time supplied a number of high profile retailers in the UK and other countries. The workers alleged that they had been forced to work 22-hour days without overtime and to often sleep in the chicken sheds with 30,000 hens. They also said their passports had been confiscated and their freedom restricted.
The owner of Thammakaset Farm 2 filed defamation charges against the workers in October 2016, claiming their allegations were false and had damaged the farm’s reputation. The workers faced up to one year in prison and heavy fines if convicted.
The company is now appealing the court’s order to pay the workers 1.7m baht (US$48,600) by Thailand’s labour department, in compensation and damages for overwork and underpayment.
