Three former Leisure Clothing employees worked 14-hour days for entire weeks and only received €600 for eight months of hard work at the Bulebel plant, a court heard yesterday.

The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations told the court that the firm issued monthly payslips but not wages, as the cash was stored “for safekeeping”.

The company would only release amounts if the employees filled out specific forms requesting a withdrawal.

Department representative Antoine Grech said the investigation began when the Vietnamese workers came to it with claims that they had not received their pay.

Thi Thu Tran, Thi Cam Van and Van Ngu Tran filed their case against Leisure Clothing officials Han Bin, Jia Liu and Zang Hang Cuan. They claim to be owed some €50,000 in wages and overtime.

This case is unrelated to the human trafficking and worker exploitation claims being investigated by police.

Superintendent Dennis Theuma, who is leading these separate investigations, said the probe was still underway and the police were also looking into the fact that workers were not being paid, “so there could be some overlapping”.

However, Magistrate Carol Peralta said the case he was hearing was about non-payment of wages and not about human trafficking allegations.

Mr Grech told the court that the company withheld wages so it could take a large sum when the workers’ contracts expired and they were repatriated.

He said the workers did not even have a copy of the contract they had signed in Vietnam before arriving in Malta.

The three Vietnamese were employed at Leisure Clothing between November 22, 2013, and July 25, 2014, when immigration officers arrested them over allegedly trying to leave the country illegally.

Between November and the end of March they worked for an entire week between 7am and 9.30pm, with a break of an hour and 15 minutes, he said.

On Sundays they worked between 8am and 6.30pm, with a 50-minute break. The following week, they were allowed one day of rest, which was usually Saturday.

Between April and July they worked the same hours but had one day off each week.

Mr Grech told the court he met chief executive Han Bin about these claims and he had said the company gave payslips to its employees but kept their money in a safety deposit box.

However, he failed to provide such documents. Neither did he supply the time sheets the company claimed to keep, nor the employees’ working permits.

Mr Grech said the workers were covered by a collective agreement signed in 2005 for a three-year period but that was automatically renewable.

Seeing the presence of the media for a case that started in September, defence lawyer Pio Valletta took umbrage at the “media campaign” targeting his clients’ company.

He said the case filed by the Vietnamese staff began months before the human trafficking investigation and the company was “disgusted” by claims about it in the media.

“A lot of newspapers have gone overboard and it’s not fair,” he complained.

He also claimed that he knew who had leaked the story and said the truth would come out in time.

The case was put off until next month. Lawyers Karl Briffa and Michael and Katrine Camilleri appeared for the workers.