Australian supermarkets hit by seafood supplier’s child labour scandal

A child labour scandal that hit a major Thai sea food company is having its reverberations in Australia too. In the line of fire are three Australian supermarkets – Woolworths, Coles and Aldi that sell prawns and seafood sourced from the controversial supplier Thai Union.

All the four major supermarket chains confirmed that Thai Union is one their main suppliers. But they said they take the issue of child labour seriously and corrective steps will be taken.

Shocking evidence of forced labour was unearthed from a prawn peeling factory owned by Thai Union. This followed an investigation by Associated Press, which exposed the pitiable conditions of hundreds of workers. It also spotted child labour at the Gig Peeling Factory in Samut Sakhon, which is hardly an hour's drive from Bangkok.

The workers were mostly from Myanmar and were seen locked inside the factory and not allowed to leave. Many children working in the production line were intimidated by the threat of violence, reports Stuff.Co.Nz.

Impact on retailers

The labour scandal may hit the Australian retailers and a prawn shortage over the summer is not ruled out as consumers start shifting preference to locally farmed prawns, and retailers will be under pressure to take off the controversial Thai products from the shelves.

All the top supermarket retailers clarified that they are probing the supply chain for corrective action.

“Thai Union is one of our suppliers as they are to most large western retailers and brands. We will investigate this further with our supplier and seek advice from our NGO partners,” a spokesman for Woolworths said.

Retailer Coles said it pursues a proactive approach on labour standard issues and works closely with all suppliers, key NGOs and stakeholder groups that include the International Labour Organisation to engage on these issues. A spokeswoman for Aldi confirmed the chain has Thai Union as one of the suppliers.

Wake-up call

A report from The Guardian threw more light on the plight of workers at the Gig peeling factory. It said the workers were made to work 16 hours a day, under threats of getting bashed up if refused to work and getting killed if tried to escape from the forced labour.

The 16-hours long work involved ripping the guts, heads and tails of prawns or shrimp, mainly for export markets with their hands in pain from the continued immersal in cold water. Adding to that pain is the puny wages paid for the hard work.

In a statement, Thai Union president and chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri described the report as a “wake-up call” for the company and promised to bring all processing in-house.

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