By Min Ni Kyaw - Dec 16, 2023
In Yangon's industrial zones, some garment factories have been closed due to power cuts and fuel shortages, workers said. The official also said that it is not easy to operate the factory due to the current difficulty in using fuel, and there are also problems between the workers and the factory officials.
"There is no electricity during the factory operating time. Also, in the afternoon and before we leaves. We got electricity for 4 hours in 8 hours. Sometimes it lasts up to 6 hours. I had to talk to the workers. The workers also refused to word substitute as it becomes frequent. They don’t wrong too,” said the administrative official of the garment factory.
The factory management official said that currently, there is no electricity from around 6 to 10 in the morning and from 1 to 3 in the afternoon in the industrial zones. Power cuts in industrial zones have increased this month, forcing them to work longer hours, workers said
"We just sit down as there is no electricity. We work when we got the power back. We can’t go back after the working hours as we have to work while there is electricity. It isn’t overtime. They said it was for the times of electricity shortage. Sometimes I work for it. If it's usually occurring, it's not convenient anymore," said a young female garment worker.
The workers said that the factory was closed for at least one to three days because they could not buy fuel, and the factory official told them to work on Sundays as substitute for those days off. "The factory was closed for 3 days as they couldn't get generator oil. They are telling me to work substitute. The workers were told that they could not work I don't know how they will react. I don't know if the wages will be cut. We come to work on working hours. It's not convenient as it costs more to work a substitute on the weekend," said the workers.
There are some workers who come to Myanmar Labor News to talk about the fact that the factory asked them to work substitutes weekends for the times of electricity and generator oil shortage and they are not paid wages for that.
