By Hsu Latt Phyu - Dec 30, 2023
The workers at the Tianjin Fashion Milestone Garment Factory, which located in Seik Kan Thar Road, Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone, Hlaing Thar Yar, said that they are being subjected to labor rights violations, including not being entitled to benefits, being illegally fired, being forced to work overtime, being discriminated against if they refuse and being directly managed by foreigners.
The garment factory, owned by a Chinese national, has more than 1,400 workers and manufactures sinsay brand warm fabric shirts and other designs. It is reported that there is no labor union organized for the negotiation and settlement of labor issues at the workplace, where more than a thousand people work.
"There are 2 factories in the vicinity of the factory, A and B. If add up, there are about 1,400 workers. The difficulties are the same. They ask for unfair fabric targets. They ask for 90 to 100 fabrics per hour. If we don't meet the standards, the super and all supers change us to other machine lines and points and swear and yell us almost every day," said a worker who is working in the factory.
"Another bad thing is that if the orders are important, the workers are immediately hired as salaried employees. But if the orders are finished, they are fired on the grounds that it has not been 3 months. Such things are happening to the workers who are under foreign orders. They are cheating the law” the worker continued.
The workers said they are forced to work overtime from Monday to Friday until 8:00 p.m. and also Saturdays and Sundays without giving a day off without prior notice in the workplace.
Another worker said, "We have to work overtime even if we are sick. Workers who don't work are discriminated against. If a worker miss overtime for a day, they don't call her at all the next days and let her go bavk. The supers told them not to come the next day,"
According to the labor law, workers must be notified in advance of overtime issues, and although they have the right to refuse overtime, in practice, they are forced to work because of intimidates towards their job stability, the worker said.
Although direct rule by foreigners are not allowed in the workplace, the Chinese nationals are directly ruling the workers and the Burmese manager and the factory officer are oppressing the workers illegally without taking responsibility for any difficulties in the workplace, the workers said.
They are not entitled to the leaves and holidays that every worker is entitled to according to the labor law and daily wages of 5,800 kyats and attendance bonus of 15,000 kyats are cut for missing a single day
"Casual leave exists in the law, but when a worker took leave without informing as their grandmother got serious health issues, they fired ger. WCC was created at the discretion of the employer, so it does nothing for the workers," said the worker.
The workers said that they want resolvents to be able entitled to leaves and holidays, not to be fired without any mistake, called overtime only after asking their consents, not to hold grudges and discriminate if they can’t work overtime and not to be directly ruled by foreigners.
