By Min Ni Kyaw - May 22, 2025
To: Myanmar Labour News,
I don’t know who to reach out to, so I’m writing to you.
I work at Lath War Garment Factory 1 in Industrial Zone 3, Hlaing Thar Yar Township. There is a loan-sharking scheme going on at our factory. The loans are being given out through HR staff.
Right now, the HR staff member who issued the loans has gone into hiding, but in the list they left behind, there are names of workers who never took out loans. None of us have ever borrowed any money. Some other HR staff even forced us to sign the loan forms.
The people whose names were listed didn’t fully understand and signed the documents. And now, even those who didn’t sign are being told that, , our salaries will be deducted whether we signed or not.
The amounts being listed for each person are huge—principal and interest adding up to around 300,000 MMK. When asked, they say we have no choice since the signature is already there. They say they’ll deduct everything from our salaries when payday comes.
The scammer has gone into hiding, and now the workers who never even took loans are the ones suffering the consequences. We think each person should be individually called and asked properly before being forced to sign anything. This isn’t a licensed loan business, either.
Is loan-sharking in a workplace even legal? Does it comply with the ETI code of conduct that brands are supposed to follow?
This is not an official financial transaction through the factory or its office. It’s just the manager using their HR staff to distribute loans on the side. Just having our names on a list shouldn’t lead to this kind of punishment. There are over 30 affected workers, maybe around 40. It’s hard to estimate the exact number across the entire factory.
The HR Manager said that one worker’s name was used to take out 250,000 MMK each. Right now, the HR staff member has disappeared. The manager said that unless they catch the person who ran off, they’ll deduct money from all the listed names.
I didn’t take any loans, and I can’t accept having my pay docked for something I didn’t do.
The manager ran a loan-sharking operation and now is forcing us to sign papers after their staff fled. We only learned how much money was taken under our names when they told us after the fact. They say they will summon all borrowers for questioning, but in the meantime, they keep saying they’ll deduct our pay.
Please help us.
