Four Years Later, Workers at Nike Supplier Are Still Owed over $900,000

October 1, 2024

Hong Seng Knitting continues to refuse to provide back pay to more than 99 percent of the affected workers and continues to refuse to pay meaningful compensation to the Burmese migrant worker who was forced to flee the country after management reported him to the police. Under Thai law, funds owed to workers incur legally mandated interest. The amount owed to workers increases every day.

Nike’s position remains unchanged. Nike discounts the evidence of coercion gathered by the WRC and continues to assert that thousands of workers at Hong Seng voluntarily chose to forgo wages that management was legally obligated to pay them. Nike has not provided the WRC with a clear explanation as to why workers would make such a choice. In support of its position, Nike cites an audit it commissioned from a contract monitoring firm; however, Nike has declined to share this audit report with the WRC.