According to the interviewees systematic and unlawful dismissals occur at all factories
except those owned by CP Foods. For instance, workers at Centaco/Sky Food
reported frequent dismissals for minor errors or no reason at all. The broker would fire a worker only to hire a new one, in order to make profit on new recruitment fee
processes. In its response, the factory management states that this practice is “unacceptable”,
and says that immediate corrective action will be taken if any subcontractor
is found guilty to such behavior.
Workers at all factories reported that toilet visits were timed by their supervisors, and
limited to one break of 10-15 minutes per working shift. At three factories workers
were punished by being disallowed future overtime or 30 minutes overtime pay was
deducted from their salary if toilet visits took additional time.
At all six factories included in the study interviewees reported that the local employer
welfare committees were inactive or were not representative for migrant workers. No
worker interviewed was aware of any other workplace committees mandated by the
Thai Labour Protection Act of 1998.87 None of the workers interviewed reported to
be part of a union, or even aware of the possible existence of such a structure at their
workplace