By Yoon Sat - Jul 17, 2024
Workers from He MeT Company Limited garment factory which locates next to the Electricity office, Twin Thin Tike Wun U Nyo Street, A Lal Village, Hlaing Thar Yar Township said that there is no changes made in the factory even after the inspecting took place and the factory is still violating their rights.
“The inspectors came on June 28th as the violations went viral on Media in June 17th. 3 male and 2 female inspectors came. 22 female workers and 1 male worker are conducted inspections whether the facts that posted on the social media are true or not. Some workers said no as they don’t dare the speak out the reality but some did tell the truth as well. The factory finish overtime too early and there was no verbal abuses only on that day but goes back to normal starting the next days,” the workers said.
The factory is a Chinese national owned factory which is operating with more than 1,050 workers and manufacturing ever me, pageone and Mo Wome brand apparels and it is said that there is no trade union in the factory.
The workers said they are also asked for excessive fabric outputs such as 40 fabric per hour for a production line with 45 people including the super. The supervisors, especially the line 4 super, are verbally harassing both the male and female workers every day.
In addition, Line 11 leader is lending money to workers at a high interest rate of 20 percent. The employer turns a blind eye and doesn’t take actions although they know that.
“The factory fire as soon as the married worker got pregnant. Many workers left without being able to complaint. Workers are not entitled to casual and medical leaves. We are also not entitled to social security leave although we paid monthly for it,” a worker explained. The factory cuts 5,800 kyats daily wages and 10,000 kyats attendance bonus; a total of 15,800 kyats for a day absent of a worker.
The employer never take responsibility and accountability for the workers’ workplace injuries such as wrist fractures and needle accidents. Workers go home late even after working overtime until 7:30 p.m. as the transportation bus provided by the factory arrived only at 8:30 p.m. More than 300 underage workers are hired in the factory. They are assigned the same tasks and workloads with the adults and forced to hide when the inspectors come.
Regarding the labor right violations, the workers requests are
1. To not assign the underage workers same tasks and workloads as adults
2. To allow legal leaves and medical leaves
3. To resolve the janitors’ verbal abuses upon the workers
4. To not make the workers to sign for visiting the clinic
5. To not dismiss the pregnant workers
6. To resolve the verbal abuses of the supervisors
7. To not call mid-night and all night overtimes.
