Company in Thai slave labour scandal to pay one million
LOS ANGELES - A steel firm implicated in a slave labour scandal involving 48 Thai welders forced to work in squalid conditions without pay will pay one million dollars compensation, US authorities said Friday.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said in a statement it had reached a settlement with Trans Bay Steel Inc, which agreed to pay compensation to the workers, who were brought to the US in 2002. The EEOC alleged the Thais were held against their will, had their passports confiscated, their movements restricted and were forced to work without pay. Several of the workers were also housed in cramped apartments without electricity, water or gas after being forced into other industries by recruitment companies contracted by Trans Bay. "The workers in this case sought out the American dream, but instead faced a nightmare," Anna Park, a lawyer at the EEOC's Los Angeles District Office, said in a statement. "The issues of human trafficking and slavery are an enforcement priority for the Commission," she added. The statement said 17 of the workers were told that if they tried to leave the location where they were being held, police and immigration officials would be called to arrest them. The statement said Trans Bay hired the workers after receiving a sub-contract to provide services to retrofit the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, northern California. Two separate recruiting companies, Kota Manpower Co and Hi Cap Enterprises were then hired to bring the workers from Thailand. However only nine of the welders were sent to work with Trans Bay -- the rest were sent to Los Angeles and Long Beach and forced to work without pay at Thai restaurants owned by Kota Manpower and Hi-Cap, or other menial unpaid jobs. Park said the plight of the workers came to light after several of them escaped from their staff quarters and sought refuge in a Buddhist temple. Several of the workers have since returned to Thailand while others will continue to work with Trans Bay. "A couple of the workers escaped at night and sought refuge in a Thai temple in Los Angeles. They were being chased down the street," Park told AFP. "It was just a horrible human story." Under the terms of the settlement, Trans Bay has agreed to pay compensation for the workers and provide work on the Bay Bridge project as well as housing, tuition and sponsorship to continue work in the US. Agence France-Presse
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