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The
company listed allegations based on interviews with 168 migrant
workers in Malaysia and 187 in Thailand that included passport
retention, unexplained and illegal wage reductions, heavy
indebtedness to labour brokers and excessive overtime work.
In Malaysia, the passports of 68 Indonesian and 171 Nepali
workers were withheld, while 15 passports and up to 30 work
permits were withheld by a supplier in Thailand.
"All passports were returned to workers and new policies and
procedures introduced for when passports are required for work
permit renewal or other government purposes," it said in the
undated document.
Tesco also found that levels of indebtedness to service or
labour providers were higher in Malaysia.
The firm has developed a plan to look further into the
situation, including detailed investigations of specific
allegations, setting up support lines and grievance mechanisms
for agency workers in their home languages and guidelines to
ensure workers have access to passports whenever needed.
Tesco will also train managers on diversity and inclusion,
review and improve accommodation and worker welfare audits,
provide full remediation, including the repayment of recruitment
fees, and shift to recruit migrant workers directly as a
preference.
Tesco commissioned an independent human rights consultancy,
Impactt, in September last year to conduct an assessment of
migrant workers' rights in stores and distribution centres in
both countries. It also receives intelligence internally and
from suppliers.
(Reporting by Liz Lee. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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