Garment Workers Demand Justice in Massive Wage Theft Case in Thailand

Invitation to press conference: FCCT Clubhouse, Bangkok, 7 August, 2pm. Also accessible online at 9am CEST.

More than 900 former workers from Body Fashion Thailand Limited, dismissed illegally from two factories in Nakhon Sawan and Samut Prakan five years ago, are now owed $7.6 million USD in unpaid severance, wages, and benefits. Many of the affected workers dedicated over a decade of service, only to be cast aside with nothing. It is one of the largest severance pay theft cases in the global garment industry.

Despite multiple Thai court rulings in the workers’ favour and sustained outreach, there has been no meaningful response from the global brands that sourced from Body Fashion, including Huber Holding (Hanro, HOM, Huber Bodywear, Skiny) in Austria, Triumph in Switzerland, and Lane Bryant and Victoria’s Secret in the United States.

What sets this case apart is the fact that the factory owner, Robert Ng (Ng Man Choong), is also the CEO of a large underwear company owning multiple brands, meaning he has a responsibility to remedy the wage theft both in his role as the factory owner and as a buyer. When a factory owner fails for years to pay workers that is almost always because the factory owner is bankrupt and no longer active in the garment industry. In this case, Ng remains active in the industry, even as he brazenly refuses to pay the workers.

This press conference will shed light on Ng’s extensive corporate conglomerate spanning multiple continents and the harm caused to workers by his unlawful behavior. This case serves as a powerful and timely example of the urgent need for government action to hold violators to account, as Thailand moves toward a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the European Union and with Thailand drafting its own mandatory Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence law.

Join us to hear directly from the affected workers as well as from experts on labour rights, due diligence legislation, and global supply chains!

Speakers:

• Dave Welsh, country director, Solidarity Center Thailand
• Former Body Fashion Thailand garment workers
• Scott Nova, executive director, Worker Rights Consortium
• Gertrude Klaffenböck, coordinator Clean Clothes Campaign Austria, Südwind
• Johnson Yeung, international urgent appeals coordinator, Clean Clothes Campaign 

When: 7 August 2025 | 2:00pm Thai time      
Where: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT), Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330
Also streaming live via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FCCThailand
Thai-English interpretation will be available.