Thailand: Cal-Comp Electronics awards compensation for illegal recruitment fees to 10,000 Burmese migrant workers
"Thai electronics firm compensates exploited workers in rare award", 11 December 2019
Burmese migrants who were illegally charged excessive recruitment fees to secure jobs at an electronics manufacturer in Thailand are being compensated in a rare award expected to spotlight a practice known to trap workers in modern slavery.
Cal-Comp Electronics - which supplies to tech giants such as HP Inc - is reimbursing at least 10,000 workers, according to Migrant Workers Rights Network...
The repayments... could total about $10 million, an estimate based on the number of workers and average sum of $660 they paid which was more than six times the legal limit in Myanmar...
... Cal-Comp... did not respond to questions about how many workers would be reimbursed or the amount they would each receive... “The company ... has developed appropriate remediation plans for workers which has yielded substantial successes by including but not limited to the ongoing repayment of recruitment fees and costs to workers,” said... a spokeswoman for Cal-Comp...
Neha Misra of the Solidarity Center... said $10 million would be the biggest single compensation award she had encountered...