Over 500 Burmese migrant workers, working in the fish net factory in Khon Khang near the Thai-Laos border, have been rendered unemployed after the factory owner cancelled  their work permits.

The factory owner canceled the permits of the labourers, who wanted to quit their jobs, because they were suffering human rights violations, Ma Thet Thet Oo from a labour group said.

“After the workers quit, the factory started facing losses and came to the verge of closure. So, the owner cancelled his quota of hiring migrant labourers. As a result, 569 workers have no work permit to work in Thailand and are unemployed,” she said.

Though the owner accepted the workers request to quit, the labourers continued to live in the factory compound because they did not get their documents and salaries.

The owner was against the workers living in his factory compound. If they had to stay they would have to pay 40 Baht per day.

So, the workers moved to Par Nan Buddhist temple this morning. They will sue the factory owner and others responsible in a court for human rights violation, Ko Myint Maung, a labour leader, said.

“We want to take legal recourse in court for rights violations. We plan to sue all of them,” he added.

According to Thai labour laws, if the owner wants to cancel work permits, he has to inform the workers at least one to three months ahead, Ko Nick from MAP said.

“Nobody can cancel or keep the documents of workers, according to the law. In this case, the factory owner is in the wrong. The owner did not inform workers in advance about cancelling their work permit. So, they can take the owner to court,” he added.

Ko Myint said each worker is to get 4,800 Baht from the owner. The owner has not given them the remaining salary yet. He lied that he transferred the salary from an ATM.

“According to our agreement, the owner doesn’t transfer money from ATM to ATM. He pays directly to us. But, he lied that he transferred the money from ATM to ATM. We quit our jobs and we don’t have ATM cards. We have requested the owner to hand over the money to us,” a worker said.

It is learnt that workers will continue to fight until they get their full salaries.

After they get their salaries from the owner, they will go back to Maesod and try for new jobs after applying for new work permits.