RBA Reimburses Former Possehl Workers
Former migrant workers and forced labour victims at Possehl Electronics in Malaysia who returned to their home countries after Possehl severed ties with their employment agency have now received compensation for the cost of their travel home thanks to collaboration between Electronics Watch and the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA). The JS Global Services agency had confiscated their passports, delayed wage payments for months, made illegal deductions from their wages, and violently threatened the workers when they asked for their wages.
While Possehl provided monetary compensation for illegal wage deductions and delayed wage payments in May and June 2019 and offered compensation to return home at the time, as Electronics Watch has previously reported, migrant workers who elected to return home paid for their own return tickets to Nepal and Indonesia. Electronics Watch kept in contact with former Possehl workers and worked with the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) to ensure that those workers who returned to their home countries received compensation for their travel expenses in accordance with the RBA Definition of Fees, the ILO Definition of Fees and Related Costs, and the Memorandum of Understanding on labour supply between Nepal and Malaysia. Electronics Watch has also learned that Possehl has fully reimbursed current migrant workers for their recruitment fees and related costs.