Protest against the dismissal of TITLU union members and workers of Body Fashion Thailand

(Thai Version)

3rd July 2009



SUBJECT: Protest against the dismissal of TITLU union members and workers of Body Fashion Thailand



Dear Mr.Deter Brown, Mr.Markus Spiesshofer, Mr.Wolfgang Spiesshofer and Mr. Oliver Spiesshofer



Body Fashion Thailand Limited, a subsidiary of Triumph International, has announced a dismissal of 1,959 workers on 29 June 2009. The dismissal accounts for 50 per cent of workers in Bangplee plant. It will take effect on 31 August 2009. The majority of redundancies are union members. Clearly, 13 union committee members are dismissed out of total 19. The reason given by Body Fashion Thailand for this dismissal is that it is necessary to restructure long term costs of all units in order to increase efficiency and to ensure that the business will survive and keep growing when opportunity comes. Meanwhile, the company’s plant in Nakhon Sawan province was expanded last year by acquiring land and enlarging the plant that can serve 2,000 workers. Currently, there are over 1,000 workers at Nakhon Sawan plant but it has no trade union.





We are writing you to express our protest against the dismissal since the reason given by the company is not credible enough. Therefore, we believe that this dismissal is aimed to destroy the trade union, relocate for cheaper labour and dispose of old workers who have served the company for many years. We believe that to improve business efficiency, the company can do better than lay off 1,959 workers by initiating other creative alternatives. Furthermore, the company has no other clear measures to improve cost before.



In order to maintain transparency, we are demanding the company to take following steps.



1. Recall the lay-off announcement of 1,959 workers and reinstate all of them to previous positions.



2. Comply to OECD guideline for MNEs on Disclosure of Information. Since the union has not yet received clear and reliable information from the company, the union is not able to have effective discussion with the company to jointly seek the best solution for those affected. The dismissal of large number of workers will certainly have impact not only to the workers themselves but their family members and society. The dialogue between the union and company shall be done in good faith in order to minimize tensions between both parties and is well recognized in democratic countries.



3. Comply to Triumph International Code of Conduct, which emphasizes on its respect to the UN General Declaration of Human Rights, UN Global Compact and ILO conventions.



We sincerely hope that the company will recognize the trade union and revoke all lay- off plans immediately and comply to Triumph International Code of Conduct.



Thank you in advance for your cooperation.