Thailand’s auditing industry fails to protect migrant workers: activists

[ad_1] MAE SOT, Thailand – When Shwe Lin heard that an auditing agency was visiting the garment manufacturing facility the place she labored within the Thai border city of Mae Sot to examine labor circumstances there, she discovered it exhausting to really feel hopeful.

The manufacturing facility ready pre-selected employees and exchanged rehearsed questions and solutions with the auditing firm, mentioned the Burmese migrant employee, who requested an alias for her security. She instructed Radio Free Asia that employees had been pressured to lie about manufacturing facility insurance policies about sick days, holidays and additional time. They’re additionally pressured to say that their employer pays for his or her authorized paperwork resembling their certificates of identification to remain in Thailand, work allow and well being certificates when employees really pay for that themselves – an outlay of about 5,500 Thai baht (US$160).

“A lot of the data [given to the auditing company] right here is inaccurate,” mentioned Shwe Lin, an older, outspoken garment employee who has been in Mae Sot for greater than 20 years and is trusted by her coworkers.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="Migrant workers and their families ride in the back of a truck in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 4, 2021." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/BYXFFXOK2FAWBJREFAMVITZWRE.jpg?auth=ba392837f5e76b3eca96577643fce7f0c5795c2018c5abdd99158cb456abef6f&width=800&height=534" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/BYXFFXOK2FAWBJREFAMVITZWRE.jpg?auth=ba392837f5e76b3eca96577643fce7f0c5795c2018c5abdd99158cb456abef6f&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/BYXFFXOK2FAWBJREFAMVITZWRE.jpg?auth=ba392837f5e76b3eca96577643fce7f0c5795c2018c5abdd99158cb456abef6f&width=400&height=267 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/BYXFFXOK2FAWBJREFAMVITZWRE.jpg?auth=ba392837f5e76b3eca96577643fce7f0c5795c2018c5abdd99158cb456abef6f&width=768&height=512 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/BYXFFXOK2FAWBJREFAMVITZWRE.jpg?auth=ba392837f5e76b3eca96577643fce7f0c5795c2018c5abdd99158cb456abef6f&width=1024&height=683 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/BYXFFXOK2FAWBJREFAMVITZWRE.jpg?auth=ba392837f5e76b3eca96577643fce7f0c5795c2018c5abdd99158cb456abef6f&width=1440&height=961 1440w" width="800" height="534"/> myanmar-thailand-migrants-factory-audit Migrant employees and their households journey at the back of a truck in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 4, 2021. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP) In lots of elements of Southeast Asia, the place Western manufacturers use third-party suppliers to supply clothes and different items, they depend on non-public “social auditing” corporations to supply assessments on whether or not labor practices are moral and socially accountable. That is partially a response to public strain on manufacturers to uphold human rights and environmental requirements of their provide chain.

The precise variety of such auditors working in Thailand is unclear, however the Workplace of the Securities and Alternate Fee of Thailand lists 30 of them.

Some labor advocates, nonetheless, contend that audits could be self-serving and overlook harsh circumstances confronted by employees.

“It’s primarily the business policing itself,” mentioned Dave Welsh, Myanmar nation director of labor rights group, Solidarity Heart.

“Social auditing corporations don't work on behalf of unions, they work on behalf of manufacturers and companies masking up conditions that fairly often, in my expertise, are clearly unlawful,” he instructed RFA.

Conflicts of curiosity A 2022 report from Human Rights Watch discovered that social audits, whereas rising more and more standard, had been “riddled with conflicts of curiosity, loopholes, and different issues that render it an insufficient device.”

Most of the employees in garment factories in Thailand are migrants from neighboring nations. In 2021, migrants made up about 1.2 million of garment employees and the quantity has seemingly risen considerably previously 4 years. The inflow of migrants into Thailand has solely grown. In response to the Worldwide Group for Migration, 1.3 million Burmese entered the nation in 2024, fleeing violent assaults from Myanmar’s navy, pressured conscription and rising joblessness.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="People at an outdoor market frequented by Myanmar migrant workers in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 26, 2025." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/22XJJMRNKZER7KZWCSL7NS6GEY.JPG?auth=2f82c396a0e60b788389011d6927cc653c83f92f5b30fcee09876f7bf61291ef&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/22XJJMRNKZER7KZWCSL7NS6GEY.JPG?auth=2f82c396a0e60b788389011d6927cc653c83f92f5b30fcee09876f7bf61291ef&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/22XJJMRNKZER7KZWCSL7NS6GEY.JPG?auth=2f82c396a0e60b788389011d6927cc653c83f92f5b30fcee09876f7bf61291ef&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/22XJJMRNKZER7KZWCSL7NS6GEY.JPG?auth=2f82c396a0e60b788389011d6927cc653c83f92f5b30fcee09876f7bf61291ef&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/22XJJMRNKZER7KZWCSL7NS6GEY.JPG?auth=2f82c396a0e60b788389011d6927cc653c83f92f5b30fcee09876f7bf61291ef&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/22XJJMRNKZER7KZWCSL7NS6GEY.JPG?auth=2f82c396a0e60b788389011d6927cc653c83f92f5b30fcee09876f7bf61291ef&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> thailand-myanmar-migrant-workers Individuals at an out of doors market frequented by Myanmar migrant employees in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 26, 2025. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP) RFA has beforehand reported on factories hiring undocumented employees, paying them illegally low wages, maintaining employees indebted and offering grossly insufficient housing or services. Activists say that these are the form of abusive practices that ought to come to gentle in audits.

Intertek Testing Companies Thailand, an auditing agency, has confronted criticism from marketing campaign and advocacy teams like U.Ok.-based Labour Behind the Label, which focuses on the clothes business, and claims the corporate “allegedly didn't determine severe points” at VK Clothes manufacturing facility in Mae Sot up till 2020, when employees took the manufacturing facility to courtroom in Thailand.

Greater than 130 former staff received their case towards VK Clothes for unpaid additional time and severance compensation, however say the quantity awarded to them was insufficient. So they're interesting their case towards the manufacturing facility in Thailand’s Supreme Court docket.

The employees allege that they endured near-100 hour work weeks, unsafe housing the place one worker’s baby was raped, and had been pressured to buy their very own tools, like lightbulbs, to stitch at their stations after darkish.

<img data-chromatic="ignore" alt="Myanmar migrant workers outside their accommodations in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 26, 2025." class="c-image" loading="lazy" src="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3TAZYJSKWNBDZFRAYJXKKOSQ3U.jpg?auth=2e9e56c412519beb7f1bb37c213f0af459439193d4331ce2a7c2b5de7581a0ec&width=800&height=533" srcset="https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3TAZYJSKWNBDZFRAYJXKKOSQ3U.jpg?auth=2e9e56c412519beb7f1bb37c213f0af459439193d4331ce2a7c2b5de7581a0ec&width=274&height=182 274w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3TAZYJSKWNBDZFRAYJXKKOSQ3U.jpg?auth=2e9e56c412519beb7f1bb37c213f0af459439193d4331ce2a7c2b5de7581a0ec&width=400&height=266 400w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3TAZYJSKWNBDZFRAYJXKKOSQ3U.jpg?auth=2e9e56c412519beb7f1bb37c213f0af459439193d4331ce2a7c2b5de7581a0ec&width=768&height=511 768w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3TAZYJSKWNBDZFRAYJXKKOSQ3U.jpg?auth=2e9e56c412519beb7f1bb37c213f0af459439193d4331ce2a7c2b5de7581a0ec&width=1024&height=682 1024w, https://www.rfa.org/resizer/v2/3TAZYJSKWNBDZFRAYJXKKOSQ3U.jpg?auth=2e9e56c412519beb7f1bb37c213f0af459439193d4331ce2a7c2b5de7581a0ec&width=1440&height=959 1440w" width="800" height="533"/> myanmar-thailand-migrant-workers-auditing Myanmar migrant employees outdoors their lodging in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 26, 2025. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP) In response to an affiliate lawyer for the employees, who requested anonymity to keep away from potential retaliation from the accused events, an audit performed by Intertek was used as proof in a 2020 courtroom case to assist VK Clothes’ denial of any wrongdoing.

The Thailand workplace of Intertek Testing Companies didn't reply to an RFA request for remark. Calls to its U.Ok. workplace went unanswered.

Different corporations have confronted related controversy. Sportswear big Nike has been accused by each buyers and human rights teams of hiding behind its audits as effectively.

In 2020, over 3,300 employees Thailand’s Hong Seng Knitting manufacturing facility in Bangkok, which provides Nike, had been allegedly coerced into signing documentation stating they'd voluntarily forgo authorized wages, in keeping with labor rights monitoring group Employees Rights Consortium. The employees allegedly confronted retaliation if they didn't. As of 2024, employees had been collectively owed greater than US $900,000, in keeping with the group.

Nike cited a report performed by auditing firm Elevate to again up its place of no wrongdoing, however has not launched the report back to the general public, the Consortium mentioned in an investigation launched in 2024.

Nike didn't reply to RFA makes an attempt to hunt remark, nor did LRQA, which acquired Elevate in 2022.

In a 2021 report, the Enterprise and Human Rights Useful resource Heart, a U.Ok.-based non-profit, cited dozens of audits throughout Vietnam, Pakistan and Malaysia that equally didn't detect security hazards, pressured labor and different violations.

Failings are routine However employees like Shwe Lin and Arkar Kyaw, who've labored at garment factories in Mae Sot for greater than three years, inform RFA that failings like this are routine.

Neither have ever been chosen by administration to talk with an auditor regardless of being outspoken about violations. They are saying they've seen auditors prevented from interviewing non-approved employees.

Aruna Kashyap, an affiliate director on company accountability on the Human Rights Watch, believes stricter due diligence legal guidelines could also be one option to crack down company accountability of their provide chains.

“If governments introduce legal guidelines that regulate how companies ought to conduct due diligence and the way your entire system is scrutinized, then a few of these issues will begin to floor extra,” Kashyap instructed RFA.

The European Union, for instance, launched a directive final yr that may require corporations with greater than 1,000 staff and over 450 million euros in worldwide income to determine and mitigate the “hostile human rights and environmental” impacts of themselves or their companions, which can embody suppliers. It might additionally require them to get contractual assurances from companions, resembling factories in different elements of the world, to make sure human rights are being protected in labor practices.

European corporations are among the many main shoppers of Thailand’s garment factories, collaborating alongside American and Asian manufacturers to supply attire and equipment from the area.

“Hopefully that stage of scrutiny will change what not simply manufacturers and suppliers are doing, however the auditing business as effectively,” Kashyap mentioned.