Factory that make workers to go back walking (or) 2024 February abuses
The 2013 Employment and Skill Development Act mentioned that factories, workshops and companies in Myanmar must sign an employment contract with the employees.
The contract must include (1) type of employment, (2) prohibition period, (3) salary, (4) location and type of business, (5) contract term, (6) working hours, (7) off day, holidays and vacations, (8) overtime, (9) meal plan during working hours; (10) accommodation and clothing, (11) medical treatment, (12) transportation, (13) training, (14) resignation and termination of employment, (15) termination of contract; (16) responsibilities of the employer, (17) responsibilities of employees, (18) Employment agreement contract and mutual agreement to cancel (19) resolving employer and employee disputes (20) amending and supplementing contract terms, (21) Contract effective date; (22) responsibilities and (23) general.
Despite these factors, the workers from the Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment factory said that around 400 workers had to walk to go to work and to go back to their homes as the factory broke the arrangement of transport vehicles.
"We are in quite a lot of trouble. Some of us had to walk back because we can’t afford the cost for the transportation. What if something bad happens on the road? The factory is quite inhumane,'' said a female worker.
Tianjin Fashion Milestone garment workers were forced to work overtime by officials. It is reported that the workers who did not work overtime are not provided transportation.
"The factory is forcing us to work overtime although they know the current political situations. More than 300 to 400 workers had to walk back home as they did not provide transportation,'' the workers said.
The workers said that the general manager (GM) of the factory said that they could not provide the ferry.
Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment locates at Seik Kan Thar Road, Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone, Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon. It is said to be a factory owned by a Chinese national. More than 1,000 workers at the factory sew the Sinsay and VERO MODA brands, and an EC contract has been signed between the employer and the employee.
By issuing rules that are not included in the EC contract, the factory is oppressing workers in various ways such as hiring young day laborers, photographing workers those who use toilets, forcing them to sign warnings, verbally abusing and intimidating.
The mutual agreement of employer and employee is necessary to complete the terms of the employment contract EC, but at Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment, the workers said that the factory unilaterally completed the contract without any consultation.
The factory changed the overtime to to 6:30 p.m., but there have been no other changes, workers said.
Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment Factory is the factory that was reported 3 times in Myanmar Labor News in last February.
Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment reported 3 times, Handa Yangon Garment 2 times, BOFEI Garment Co.,ltd 2 times, Asdet 2 times each and there are 35 factories that are once among the 44 reports of 39 and in addition we expressed one analytical and foreign worker news once, 2 interviews and 6 news.
The most common type of violations
Myanmar Labour News is are currently documenting more than 25 types of content that are considered to be in violation of the law.
In February, 21 types of violations against workers were reported. Types of violations documented include pay cuts and right abuses. According to the data, 39 factories participated 32 times.
There were 26 news related to denying leaves, 21 related to dismissing and verbally abusing, 20 related to demand increasing, pressurizing and intimidating. 17 related to overtime violations and 15 related to violating on day laborers,
The category of less than 10 cases includes 7 news related to discrimination and 5 news related to the violation of the EC Treaty.
Reported factories
Two manufacturing factories, a wig factory, 3 bag factories and 33 garment factories included in the factories reported in Myanmar Labour News in February 2024. The manufacturing factories are the picture frame factory and the headphone factory.
Most violating factories
Among the factories reported to be in violation, the factories with the most type of violations were Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment Factory, S-M MYANMAR Garment, BOFEI garment Co.,ltd. Asdet Garment Factory and Handa Yangon Garment Factory.
Owners of the labor right violating factories
The owners of the factories reported to have violated labor rights in February were Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Bangladeshi and Burmese nationals. There are 31 factories owned by Chinese nationals, including one factory each owned by Japanese, Korean, Bangladeshi Burmese nationals have 1 factory each.
Reported industrial zones
There are 13 industrial zones where there are violations of labor rights. All the mentioned industrial zones are located in Yangon Region. It can be found in the chart.
Labor rights violating trademarks
In February, Myanmar Labour News reported on 71 brands manufactured by factories and mentioned 90 times. Most of the brands are distributed internationally including some international brands have announced that they will not ship to Myanmar.
Myanmar Labor News analysis for February found out the relation between workers’ benefits cut and factory officials denying leaves are relating and also violating upon the legal overtime. The workers are not entitled to legal leaves although they are stipulated by the law and the factories even make the workers who don’t work overtime go back home walking although surveying the workers’ consents is a must for calling overtime according to the law.
All involved parties need to be aware that increasing fabric output demands, verbal abuse, coercion and exploitation only benefits the employer.
Taking advantage of the weakness of the law and the ministry can be considered un-ethic and Myanmar Labour News’ previous news is demonstrating that the workers are not even protected by that weak law.
Myanmar Labour News is also going to upload more brief articles related to workplace violations in the monthly.