Loyal employees ‘defended’ Chinese exploitation at Leisure Clothing

A court heard a former Vietnamese employee of Chinese-owned textile manufacturer Leisure Clothing say she had repeatedly been told that complaining about her conditions was futile, as its Maltese employees would defend their employer in court because their advancing age made it harder for them to find alternative employment.

Duong Thi Lien, one of the alleged victims of human trafficking at the Bulebel textile factory, was testifying in the compilation of evidence against the company’s managing director Han Bin, a 46-year-old naturalised Maltese citizen, born in China, and its Chinese marketing director Liu Jia 31.

Han and Liu are charged with several breaches of Maltese employment law as well as the trafficking of nine Vietnamese persons for the purpose of labour exploitation and misappropriating money owed to them.

Duong told Magistrate Carol Peralta that she spent nine months working at Leisure Clothing, beginning in February 2014.

She recounted a now familiar story of being enticed to Malta by the prospect of a much higher salary than what she could expect to earn in Vietnam, paying the equivalent of approximately €3,000 to an agent to be given the job, only to end up being paid a third of the expected amount, before overtime.

Answering a question by lawyer Katrine Camilleri, appearing in parte civile for the workers, Duong said she was paid a basic wage of €230 per month before overtime – nearly two-thirds less than agreed and well below the minimum wage under Maltese law.

She said that she would work punishing hours to earn overtime only to find herself being paid approximately the equivalent of what her income had been in Vietnam.

 In spite of one of her pay-slips showing that she had earned some €370 in a month, Duong emphasised that she did not actually receive this amount, and was only being paid €150 on a two-monthly basis.

The Leisure Clothing case made the headlines last year after three Vietnamese workers were apprehended trying to escape from Malta by boarding a catamaran to Sicily with fake Italian passports. Police began investigating after the Vietnamese workers told them why they were so desperate to leave. 


In previous sittings, the court had been told that the company had offered to send its Vietnamese workers back to Vietnam, but that those who chose to stay in Malta would be required to sign a declaration to the effect that their working conditions were very good.

Duong testified that her superiors had warned her that she had no hope of taking the company to court and winning, as it had been operating in Malta for more than 20 years, and that the Maltese employees would defend the company as they were getting older and faced the prospect of being unable to find another job if the factory were to close its doors.

When asked by the magistrate why, in the many months of her employment with Leisure Clothing, the woman had done nothing to bring her situation to the attention of the authorities, she said that she feared her employers would send her back to Vietnam without paying her.

Lawyers Pio Valletta and Edward Gatt appeared for the defendants. Inspector Sylvana Briffa is leading the prosecution.