Thai Oil Subcontractors File Reports Against ‘UJV’ for Fraudulent and Submit Letter to S.Korea Embassy

The union of subcontractors affected by underpayment from UJV group has held a meeting and came up with several resolutions to proceed against their contractor consisting of Samsung E&A (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (Samsung), Petrofac South East Asia Pte. Ltd. (Petrofac), and Saipem Singapore Pte. Ltd. (Saipem).

The UJV group is a primary contractor for the Clean Fuel Project (CFP) which belongs to the Thai Oil Public Company Limited (SET: TOP). The meeting, which was held on November 1, concluded to proceed with these following measures.

Beginning on 4 November 2024, the group of more than 30 subcontractors will file a lawsuit against the UJV group for defraudation at Laem Chabang police station in Sriracha, Chonburi, before forwarding the case to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to make it a special case.

Additionally, the group planned to gather workers and other subcontractors who were affected by the underpayment to march on the parliament in Bangkok to submit the request to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to take care of the situation. The group also plans to appeal to the South Korean embassy, which is Samsung’s home country, to take responsibility for the company’s action.

The union’s lawsuit came about after the negotiation last week with the UJV breakdown.

Thawatchai Srithong, Chonburi Governor, was the mediator for the negotiation between the union and the UJV. During the talks, the governor suggested that if the UJV did not have a good reason for why the group did not pay its subcontractor after they received funds from Thaioil, the union should file a lawsuit for defraudation with the DSI and use Thai law to pressure the UJV for payment since the union can not rely on international law.