Supermarket giant Tesco is facing a lawsuit in the UK from Burmese migrant workers who claim they were used by F&F suppliers as slave labour in Thailand.

Tesco billboard

Tesco and its suppliers are accused of being “unjustly enriched at the expense of adult workers”

Following an expose by The Guardian over the weekend, UK law firm Leigh Day brought a lawsuit on behalf of 130 claimants demanding compensation from Tesco and its Thai subsidiary at the time, Ek-Chai, which it sold in 2020.

“Burmese migrants were made to work up to 99 hours a week on unlawful wages and in forced labour conditions at a Thailand factory making clothes for Tesco’s F&F fashion range,” said Leigh Day. 

The claimants also accuse Tesco and its suppliers of being “unjustly enriched at the expense of the adult workers”. 

The lawsuit will also target Intertek, the insurance and auditing group that inspected the factory where the alleged forced labour took place. 

The Burmese workers were based at the VK Garments factory in Mae Sot, north-west Thailand, between 2017 and 2020, where they cut, made and packed garments to be sold on behalf of Tesco in Thailand. 

The Guardian expose found that workers were paid just ÂŁ4 a day, and published claims they were forced to work 7 days a week at a relentless pace and were forced to live in tiny dormitories, sleeping on concrete floors. 

In a statement, Tesco said yesterday that the claims were “incredibly serious” and added that if it had “identified issues like this at the time they took place, we would have ended our relationship with this supplier immediately”.

Tesco was not directly involved in the day-to-day running of the factory, but has urged Ek-Chai, its former supplier, to “reimburse employees for any wages they’re owed”.

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