By Patchanee Kumnak
(ภาษาไทยโปรดอ่านข้างล่าง)
This report is based on interviews of forty-one workers who were unfairly laid off by Worldwell Garment Company, Limited, which operates as a subcontractor for many brand names such as Disney. The employer, Mr. Kijja Jarungponpipat, announced the company’s closure on May 1st, 2009, leaving both contract and non-contract workers jobless without advance notice. Mr. Jarungponpipat cited a lack of new orders and financial troubles as reasons for Worldwell’s abrupt closure. The company’s forty-one workers received neither the two months’ wages that they were owed, nor the compensation required by the Labour Protection Law.
Only after three weeks of the Woldwell workers’ struggles did Mr. Jarungponpipat make a late payment of owed wages to thirty-three contract workers, paying a grand total of roughly 70,000 Baht on the 21st of May. Non-contract workers received nothing. Because this compensation made up only the tiniest fraction of the two million four hundred thousand Baht that Worldwell’s former employees were owed, these workers had no choice but to continue their daily rallies in front of the factory grounds. After the Mr. Jarungponpipat made several attempts to remove the company’s automatic sewing machines and other valuable property from the premises, it became clear that he was attempting to illegally conceal these remaining assets after declaring bankruptcy, further cheating the workers of the compensation that they are owed by law. During the weeks that they stood guard by the factory gates, the workers also applied for immediate assistance through the Thai government’s “Vocational Development” program (in Thai: “Ton Kla Archeep”).The Worldwell workers demand that Mr. Jarungponpipat pay the monthly salaries owed to the company’s eight non-contract workers, in addition to the compensation that is legally due each of the forty-one workers whose employment was terminated without advance notice. Their employer has acted with impunity, receiving no punishment from the law, despite petitions made by workers (assisted by the Thai Labor Campaign) to the Ministry of Labor, the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare, and the Samutsakorn Provincial Office of Labor Protection and Welfare.
The former employees of Worldwell demand that the state ensure that they receive the 60 days’ compensation that is their due. More importantly, the Worldwell workers demand justice of an employer to whom they have committed themselves for years, often working overtime in order to both increase their daily earnings and meet the demands of difficult production schedules Although they received little incentive pay, skill premiums, or production rewards, Worldwell’s forty-one factory employees worked hard for minimum wages that were never raised by their employer, exceeding their production targets through their dedicated service to the company.
The information below outlines Worldwell’s company structure, its place in the subcontracting chain, and the long-term exploitation of its workers that can be seen so clearly in the way in which its workers have been illegally dismissed.
Worldwell Garment Company Limited’s business
Worldwell Garment Company Limited began to run the business in 1994 with authorized capital worth twenty-five million Baht. It is located at 14 Moo 7, Sedthakid Road, Nadee Subdistrict, Muang District, Samutsakorn Province under the management of Mr. Kijja Jarungponpipat. It is a subsidiary of Worldcup Industries Company Limited, the mother company, located at 110/3-4, Ekkachai Road, Bangborn District, Bangkok and its telephone no. is 662 8996721 and fax no. 662 4151821. There are four other subsidiary companies under this mother company, namely, Asia Worldbra located on Suksawat Soi 11 Road, Bangpakok, Ratburana District, Bangkok, Thai Worldelastic at 110/3-4, Ekkachai Road, Bangborn District, Bangkok, Suparun (Commercial Tower) in front of Worldwell Garment company and Tanakom (marketing) in Bangkhae.
There were 500 workers and 60 industrial sewing machines worth over two millions Bht. each. And there were six lines of production from A to F.
Many brand names outsource orders to Worldwell Garment through agents in Thailand, as follows:
During 2003, the company produced clothes of the brand, Disney.
During 2004-2006, the company took orders from V-F (customer), producing lots of numbers of clothes of the brand Disney, Haley Davidson, Kereen, Reebok, Antigua, etc. Therefore, workers worked overtime through the year until the company hired more sub-contractors in Mae Sod such as Sieng Tai Co., Supmunkong, Furitire, Arunchai Textiles, A.T. Garment.
During 2007, the company produced clothes of School, Karena, Jockie, Snow and Sun, S. Fair.
During 2008, the company produced Triumph, School Affaria, Daniel, L.L.B, and Mamos. Anyway it reduced overtime jobs because it outsources almost all orders to sub-contractors who hire migrant workers with cheaper wages.
The employer made it his policy to reduce the number of workers about five years ago. Workers also resigned because they could survive with minimum wages, overtime hours, and few welfare benefits. Upon its closing, Worldwell employed only forty-one workers, comprising thirty-six women and five men using thirty industrial sewing machines.
Most of these employees are old. Eight people have worked at Worldwell for over ten years; four people have worked there for five to ten years; and nineteen people have worked there for one to four years. There are only ten non-contract workers comprising four people, who have worked for over ten years and six people with three or four years old of working experience. The rest are contract workers.
With or without a contract, each Worldwell employee worked extremely hard and ensured the company’s growth, profits, and continued orders. A QC worker said that the great profits of the company were in no way reflected by the wages paid to its workers. For example, the employer would pay 203 Bht. per day for contract workers, but would sell products for 700 Bht each, sending them to agents in Thailand. Triumph’s products are 1,950 of 1,600 Bht. each.
A few years ago, Triumph International Company in Thailand outsourced orders to Worldwell Garment, so the employer made some O.T. jobs available to the Worldwell workers. However, when he laid off all of his employees and closed the company on the 1st of May 2009 without paying owed wages, providing compensation, and giving advance notice. Previously, he has reduced 20%-25% of non-contract workers’ monthly salaries.
Process of Production
In the past, there were six lines of production. In each line, there were fifty workers operating six automatic sewing machines.
In making many brand names’ clothes, workers must take many steps, for example, Disney’s jackets are very delicate, so they require 100 different steps in their production, assembling the arms part, collar, etc. while Triumph’s pants are less difficult. In spite of the complex and repetitive process required for assembling such garments, Worldwell’s factory employees’ skills and capacities were excellent, as the products they assembled sold out consistently. A worker said that she could make every part of a shirt and was confident that workers made profit to their company. For example, in 2004 the company took orders from Disney about 10,000 items/week. That caused workers to work overtime four hours a day with little or no rest.
The employer had a policy for workers to work exceeding production targets in order to maximize profit by means of giving incentive pay to every line if each line could make over 200 items per day. This cash incentive amounted to roughly 200-600 Bht. per month. Due to this coercive policy, many workers resigned.
Before workers were laid off in May, the company was downsized to a minimum setup of forty-one workers who were capable of operating all stages of the production process. The remaining staff was comprised of twenty-two dressmakers including two foremen, five QC workers and their foreman, four office workers, one mechanic, one sample maker, one pattern maker, and four general staffpeople.
Wages, welfares and factory’s environment
Worldwell’s workers have lived with the minimum wage rate for a long time, and when the Thai government announced that the legal minimum wage would be raised, their employer refused to adjust their wages accordingly. In the past, they had worked for roughly one hundred Baht a day and upon their dismissal received 203 Bht. a day. The employer would give little incentive pay, skill premium, and production rewards to them, and no annual bonus. Overtime job pay was 1.5 times their normal wages.
They usually worked from eight a.m. to five p.m., taking a one hour break for lunch. If they worked overtime until seven p.m., they would keep working without a rest peiod. If they worked OT until eight p.m., they would be allowed a thirty-minute rest before starting their OT shift.
Worldwell workers received far fewer welfare benefits than those offered to workers employed by other factories nearby, which provided strainers, a canteen with cheap food, and dormitories. Worldwell’s contract workers would not receive wages when they took any kind of leave, except when they could present documents that certified their admission to a hospital, at which point they would be paid the cost of their medical care. Their employer also never provided them with a regular party on New Year’s Day, a vehicle for transporting them to and from work, or any of the other amenities that are standard among other factories in the area. The wokers’ cost of living increasing significantly when the Worldwell canteen was closed one year ago and its facilities could not be used anymore, forcing them to eat outside in an exposed area and drink from a water supply.
When the factory was new and its toilets and wok area were quite clean. Soon these facilities became filthy due to the neglect of the employer, who took no measures to maintain basic health and safety standards in the factory. Employees resorted to wearing masks while working. There is no maid for cleaning up, so they all have to help clean toilets, electric fans, etc. With minimal ventilation, the work environment was exceedingly hot in a cramped area that housed forty-one people working together.
Most workers suffered from occupationally induced ailments due to this environment, such chronic colds, asthma, aches and pains, and bladder and urinary tract infections, all of which became especially prevalent among individuals who had worked exceptionally long shifts.
The impact toward workers’ families
Somporn Kham Ai is fifty-one years old. She started working at Worldwell in 1994 and never changed her job. She is a contract worker and makes clothes. Previously, she received an estimated 8,000 Bht. per month if there were many overtime opportunities available. Upon the factory’s closure, she received less income: only around 5,000 Bht. per month.
She has two children, who currently live with their father doing farm work in Chiangrai. The younger daughter is studying undergraduate while the elder one is working. Somporn is responsible for her child as long as she remains in school with no means of support. Somporn now lives alone in Samutsakorn and is suddenly faced with high rents after moving out from the factory’s dormitory.
Having received such small wages, she regularly pays 120 Bht. a day to meet her costs of living, along with 1,500 Bht. for a rent. She is quickly eating through her savings which will not last much longer.
Wannapa Tongdaeng is thirty-five years old and has worked at Worldwell for six years. Before being fired, she received 6,000 Bht. per month. While she worked as QC, she did not receive incentive pay or skill premiums like the others.
Now she must take care of both her two children and her parents, all of whom live in her parents’ house. While she does not pay rent, she must find money for her children’s high school and primary school tuition fees. She pays about 150-180 Baht per day to meet her expenses. Her dismissal from Worldwell has caused her to take on an informal loan with a high rate of interest as she searches for a new job.
