The labor strife at GM's Colombian plant has, in the past, triggered a hunger strike by workers, and now a complaint filed with the U.S. DOJ and SEC.

Labor activists filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission, charging General Motors with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to government officials in Colombia.

The bribery and corruption charges are the latest twist in long-running dispute between GM and Colombian workers, who argue they were injured while working at a GM assembly plant in Bogota, Colombia, and never received anything near adequate compensation.

In their new complaint, the workers claim their efforts to be compensated properly for their injuries was systematically subverted by Colombian officials, who were bribed by GM employees in Colombia, according to the complaint filed with the DOJ and SEC.

The 16-page filing originated with members of the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of GM Colmotores (ASOTRECOL), who claim they lost their jobs unlawfully after sustaining disabling injuries at the assembly plant.

The filing with the SEC/DOJ, which are jointly tasked with enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, seeks to have those very “authorities” investigated for taking bribes from GM, and prosecuted as necessary.

A handful of the former GM employees from Colombia, who have gained the support of a small network of activists in the U.S., have staged a sit-in for more than 1,200 days outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, demanding compensation.

The activists said the complaint is based on documents gathered over the years by ASOTRECOL leader, Jorge Parra, who in a letter sent to the DOJ and SEC said that GM violated Colombian laws with impunity, with assistance of Colombian government officials.

The complaint said a Labor Ministry official and his subordinates, made sure that GM was able to dismiss workers injured on the job and deny them compensation.

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The complaint also charges that documents falsified by a Labor Ministry official covering up GM’s illegal “voluntary termination agreements” targeted at injured workers.

GM executives and officials have long denied any wrongdoing and insisted the injured Colombian workers have been treated fairly

(To see more about GM’s lengthy history with the workers in Colombia, Click Here.)

In September, GM chief executive officer Mary Barra said the workers’ allegations of safety problems in the company’s overseas factories, including Colombia, have been reviewed and “well-vetted” by the proper authorities in Colombia.

The comments by Barra, who was in charge of GM’s personnel practices worldwide when the dispute began, followed a demonstration by about a dozen activists outside a hall in Detroit where she was giving a speech.

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In fact, when Barra visited India in September, she toured a facility there with a similar history to that of the one in Colombia. The company’s plant in Halol has been the site of chronic labor disputes over the past four years.

Paige Shell-Spurling, one of the principal organizers of the demonstration outside Cobo, said information supplied by the general secretary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress indicated 269 instances of spinal injuries have been documented in the plant – out of a plant employing 1,600.