"Vietnamese trainees in Ehime underpaid since 2020" 16 November 2022

A group supporting Vietnamese students and technical trainees in Japan says 11 trainees working at a sewing firm in Ehime Prefecture have not been appropriately paid. It says the firm failed to pay a total of about 27 million yen, or around 190,000 dollars, to them.

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The group said, in some months, their overtime exceeded 150 hours and the company paid an hourly wage of around 2.5 to 2.9 dollars for most of the hours. The amount is about half of the minimum wage.

The trainees say the total of unpaid wages during the period from 2020 amounts to 190,000 dollars. They plan to ask the company to pay the wages.

A 32-year-old trainee, who came to Japan to support her family and relatives, said she is sad that they are also suffering from the non-payment of wages.

A lawyer for the company said there is no excuse for the non-payment. The lawyer said the firm is now preparing for bankruptcy procedures but plans to pay the wages using the government's wage coverage programme.