"13-month campaign leads to union win", 19 May 2022

Thirteen months of continuous campaigning has led to a union win for Triumph International Thailand Labour Union (TITLU). Now Brilliant Alliance Thai Global (BAT) will pay the money owed to the 1,388 illegally fired workers.

The 1,388 workers were fired without notice in March 2021 as the factory, supplying lingerie brands Victoria’s Secret, Torrid and Lane Bryant, suddenly closed, using the pandemic and a lack of orders as reasons.

The workers, mostly women, were left in dire conditions in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the factory owners refused to pay wages, overtime, holiday and severance pay owed.

The Thai labour inspector ordered the company to pay THB 242million (US$7.4 million) for violating the country’s labour laws. The company offered to pay workers in instalments over a 10-year period. When this was rejected by the union, the company went into liquidation and promised to fulfil its legal obligations.

...TITLU, together with the Textile Workers Federation of Thailand (TWFT) and the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT), held several demonstrations demanding that the company and the government fulfil workers’ rights under the labour laws...

After negotiations, the company has now agreed to pay US$8 million in total to the lingerie workers by the end of April. The amount includes the wages, overtime, holiday and severance pay that BAT owed the workers, as well as eight per cent per annum interest...