By Alisa Tang
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Working conditions for migrants at Thai seafood factories that supply the bulk of the world's canned tuna have improved, rights advocates said on Tuesday, but problems remain such as forced overtime and physical punishment.
Researchers interviewed a total of 20 Burmese workers from two factories - Thai Union Manufacturing (TUM) and Unicord PCL of the Sea Value Group - for a study published on Tuesday by Finnwatch, a Finland-based research and advocacy organisation that has monitored the two factories since 2012.
They also examined migrants' salary receipts, work permits and receipts for work permit fees, and offered some rare good news in an industry that has come under fire for abusive working conditions sometimes amounting to modern slavery.
"The two factories that we studied, Unicord and TUM, have indeed improved their working conditions," said Finnwatch executive director Sonja Vartiala.
Thailand hosts an estimated 3 million migrant workers, 80 percent of them from neighbouring Myanmar, and migrant abuse is widespread, with many workers reporting unpaid wages, exorbitant recruitment fees, confiscated travel documents and violence in the workplace.
Recruitment fees often equal several months' wages, while having travel papers confiscated limits migrants' freedom of movement and makes them vulnerable to arrest or extortion by police.
According to the Finnwatch study, the migrants reported working six days a week and are paid the minimum wage of 300 baht ($8.87) per eight-hour day, plus 56.25 baht ($1.66) per hour of overtime.
The passports of migrant workers are no longer confiscated, and the migrants now have written employment contracts, translated into the Burmese language, the study said.
The researchers found that work safety and social security have improved, though workers complained that the healthcare services they are legally entitled to are often poor, hospitals providing only pain relievers instead of treating illnesses and injuries.
Workers at Thai Union Manufacturing reported forced overtime, and one said a supervisor would yell at them and become angry if someone did not want to work overtime.
One migrant working for Unicord was banned from the factory for three days for violating regulations by wearing an earring.
Finnwatch also received reports about supervisors at Unicord slapping migrant workers.
Another problem researchers found is high recruitment fees, with new hires at Unicord in May 2015 paying between 125 and 209 euros ($135 to $230).
"The Thai tuna industry and European buyers should ban charging of recruitment fees," Vartiala wrote in an email. "European countries should adopt legislation that would require supermarkets and other companies to do human rights due diligence when buying produce from risk countries."
Officials at TUM and Unicord did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TUM is a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL, which owns the Chicken of the Sea brand. TUM's factories process 400 tonnes of tuna each day and employ about 8,500 people, half of them migrants, the Finnwatch study said.
The Unicord 2 factory that Finnwatch has been monitoring employs 4,000 people, 80 percent of them migrants from Myanmar and Cambodia.