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Japan firm says doesn't have money for Ecuador 'slavery' compensation

A worker carries abaca fiber at a plantation in the Bonanza estate owned by Japanese company Furukawa Plantaciones C.A. of Ecuador, the main producer of abaca fiber, in the Santo Domingo-Quevedo route, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas province, Ecuador, on December 13, 2024. The Constitutional Court of Ecuador ruled last December 5 that Japanese-owned Furukawa company held workers in slave-like conditions and ordered the payment of 120,000 US dollars to each of the 342 victims who lived in company camps without electricity, drinking water, basic sanitation facilities or access to education and health services. (Photo by Rodrigo BUENDIA / AFP)

By AFP

A Japanese textile company, ordered by Ecuadoran courts to pay $41 million to compensate its workers for keeping them in slave-like conditions, claimed Saturday it lacks the money to pay up.

Ecuador's Constitutional Court last week ordered the company, Furukawa, to pay $120,000 to each of the 342 victims -- a total of around $41 million. It will also have to make a public apology to them.

But Furukawa's director Adrian Herrera told AFP Saturday that his company doesn't have that much money.

"Even if we sold all the properties, all the vehicles, all the assets of the company, we would not be able to pay these 41 million dollars," he said.

He added that the firm had $6 million in assets and providing all the compensations in full would "mean the closure of the company."

Former employees had complained of dire living and working conditions. In testimonials earlier this month, some said they had to give birth to children in unsanitary and overcrowded camps, while others were denied proper medical attention after work-related injuries.

Furukawa has contested the constitutional court's decision, arguing that there were inconsistencies. It has asked for the compensation amount to be reduced, saying the livelihoods of hundreds of workers currently employed at the plant depend on these jobs.

As of 2021, Furukawa's plantations for abaca -- a fine plant fiber -- covered almost 23,000 hectares spread over three provinces on the Pacific coast, where the majority of the population is Black.