Earlier this year the power tool supplier who sells Milwaukee branded products was slapped with a massive $15 million dollar fine after the ACCC accused them of price fixing at retailers in Australia, now a Chinese national has sued the US tool maker for manufacturing products using forced labour which is a violation of the U.S. Trafficking Victim Protection Act.

The Company distributing the Milwaukee tools in Australia, Techtronic has not commented.

The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee with US officials claiming that Techtronic Industries, knew, or should have known, its Milwaukee branded gloves were made with forced labour.

The plaintiff, identified as Xu Lun, was a prisoner at Chishan Prison in China’s Hunan province in 2022 when he was allegedly subjected to five months of forced labour making textile goods, including work gloves that had the “Milwaukee” logo.

Milwaukee gloves are being sold in Australia by various retsailers including Total Tools, Amazon and Sydney Tools.

Xu alleges that Shanghai Select Safety Products, which supplied Milwaukee Tool’s gloves, outsourced orders to a prison where he was being held by Chinese authorities.

In April, gloves from Shanghai Select Safety Products were held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after finding evidence that “reasonably indicated the use of convict labour.”

The companies including Techtronic Industries have failed to provide a comprehensive audit of suppliers and have refused to meet with Xu, according to the court filing.

Milwaukee Tool said it had conducted an internal investigation and found no forced labour in the supply chain in February 2023, following a letter from Xu’s lawyer.

Claims of similar forced labour have also been made against the appliance Company ChiQ whose products are sold at Harvey Norman.

Xu had worked for a non-governmental organization before he was arrested in July 2019 by Chinese authorities, according to the complaint.

He was convicted two years later of subversion of state power, a crime commonly used by Chinese authorities against human rights campaigners.

Xu, who remains in China, has used a pseudonym for his safety, according to Farra & Wang, the Washington-based law firm representing him.

“This lawsuit is just the tip of the iceberg and was only made possible because of a unique set of circumstances. The problem of forced labour runs much deeper,” said Times Wang, Xu’s lawyer.

“Our hope is that this lawsuit will shine a light on the phenomenon and make it harder for companies to get away with forced labour in their supply chains.”

ChannelNews understands that both appliance, PC companies and accessory Companies have been accused of using forced labour to manufacture goods that have ended up at Australian retailers.

Techtronic Industries did not respond to a request for comment.

Xu was assigned to sort fabric, cut thread, glue, perform quality control and ironing and was required to cut fabric for up to 500 pairs or sew around 200 pairs of gloves.

Another activist, Lee Ming-che, who now resides in Taiwan and was a prisoner in the same facility in April 2020 for a year, is also named in the court filing as being forced to make Milwaukee Tool work gloves.

Laborers allegedly worked in factories with no air conditioning or heating and poor ventilation for up to 13 hours a day and were allowed only one to three days off every month.