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Nearly 6,000 workers at Chutex Co. at Song Than 2 Industrial Park in Binh Duong Province have returned gifts offered by their company for the Tet holiday after finding some of them were cheap fakes.

Workers said the company gave them a gift pack containing a bottle of cooking oil, a pack of seasoning powder, a pack of sugar and a packet of Knorr-branded seasoning.

But the Knorr, produced by Unilever Vietnam Co., was counterfeit.

On February 6, Binh Duong Province authorities investigated the workers' complaint and confirmed the company had tried to pass off fake Knorr season as the real thing.

They confiscated nearly 6,000 Knorr-branded fake seasoning powder packs worth a face value of VND322m (USD15,333)-- the total value of the gift packs was VND812m.

Chutex Co. cooperated with the investigation and has asked authorities to help trace the source of the fake packets.