Workers at the Hong Seng Knitting garment factory in Thailand who sew university logo apparel for Nike have been subjected to abuse, wage theft and retaliation by factory management from May - October 2020. A investigation from the Worker Rights Consortium uncovers an illegal wage theft scheme that deprived workers of nearly $600,000 in legally mandated wages, or more than 15 days’ wages, per worker. With interest, that figure is more than $900,000.
The factory wanted to avoid paying their workers' legal right to income security during periods of low production. Under Thai law, workers have a right to a reduced wage if a factory temporarily suspends work. Factory management, however, compelled workers to sign a form falsely stating that they wanted to take voluntary, unpaid leave. Workers who resisted signing, were met with threats of dismissal, retaliation, intimidation or even reporting to the police. The Thai government ruled that the forms do not constitute a lawful basis to deny workers their wages even though Nike hides behind claims that the process was “consensual and voluntary”.
Nike has no explanation for why and how hundreds of workers would freely choose to give up wages to which they were legally entitled, under intense pressure, vulnerability that comes with migrant work, and financial hardship.
While Nike has now agreed to restitute workers' leave days and compensate workers who were subjected to retaliation, it is not enough: the brand refuses to pay interest and tried to pay Kyaw San Oo, a worker who was reported to the police and felt compelled to free the country, with a meagre $1700. We keep pushing Nike: they would never refuse to pay interest on a bank loan, but now that they borrowed from their workers for five years, suddenly, Nike does not understand how money works. Let's keep up the pressure so that Nike fully compensates the Hong Seng and former Violet workers.
