Without getting wages, 6 female workers forced to leave by employer

4. 5. 2012 __ Without getting wages, 6 female workers from Archi sock factory were forced to leave by their employer. Although they worked hard to finish the works given, they were sacked without any suitable reasons. “We do not have legal documents but we have been working in this factory for one and a half month. One of us has been working for over 8 months. At first, the employer treated us fairly. This could be mainly because we are the only workers working here. He sometimes threatened and scolded us, but we keep working because he promised to give our wages as 1,500 baht per month and 1,800 for the longer-term worker. We have to work at least 12 hours a day. However hard we tried, we can never finish the works since we have only 6 workers at the factory. Therefore there are always lots of works at the brand sticking place. Then the employer asked his brother another factory owner to send 8 workers to him. Since the other 8 workers arrived 4 days ago, the work time is reduced to 10 hours but the employer began to treat us unfairly. He said we make noises in the factory while working and are lazy. Later he forced us to work many things and told us to leave if we cannot do it. But I told my colleagues to wait and learn the situation in hope of getting wages. Still the employer forced us to leave, so we told him we will leave once we get the wages but he refused. Then we asked 1,000 baht for us to go back to Myawaddy, a Burmese border town. He even denied to give that 1,000 baht for six of us. That is why we stopped working this morning” one of the workers told Yaung Chi Oo Workers Associaton. After they leave the factory, the workers came to YCOWA office and asked to help them get back their wages. Currently, the workers are staying at the YCOWA Community Center while waiting for their legal process. Like this case, Burmese migrant workers are oppressed by their Thai employers.