• 
• 

Published on August 9, 2007

Apart from legally required severance payments, Lee Chen Fu  will be subject to civil action to clear debts and will be barred from making future investments here, Phadungsak Thephasdin, director-general of the Labour Protection and Welfare Department, said yesterday.

The department took action following the unannounced shutdown of Lee's Phoenix Furniture Group in Samut Prakan's Muang district yesterday. Lee has since disappeared without paying Bt6.5 million in wages to 463 workers and a number of other full-time employees.

Phadungsak also called on workers and immigration officers to help locate Lee after a complaint was lodged with Ban Bueng police in Chon Buri. More than 100 workers yesterday gathered outside the Phoenix compound to demand their wages. The workers had earlier gathered outside the local labour welfare office to negotiate with Rewat Khantha-aree, a Thai manager, who had promised earlier to meet them there but later fled.

A workers' leader, Lanthom Khwan-on, said she learned that the firm had sold all its machinery and office supplies but had lied to staff that the equipment had been relocated to its Chon Buri plant. She said all the workers had witnessed the transport of the equipment, but were not suspicious because they believed the management's statement about relocation of operations.

Meanwhile, a ministry report said three foreign-owned companies in Rayong had closed down and more than 300 workers had received all payments they were entitled to. A construction company will close down soon and all 96 workers and 47 full-time employees are expected to receive their money. - The Nation