The victim worker rebutted the allegations of Pepsi factory officials

By Yoon Sat - Oct 01, 2024

U Thaung Han, who was illegally fired from the Pepsi soft drink factory, refuted the factory's allegations during the (33rd) hearing on September 30th.

U Thaung Han worked at the LOTTE MGS Beverage (Myanmar) Co., Ltd (Lotte MGS)’s manufacturing factory which located at Yangon – Pyi Street, Mawbe Township worked as a S1 senior electrician for 8 years. The factory dismissed him with the reason of saying not being present during important guest’s visit.

U Thaung Han, a worker at the Pepsi soft drink factory, was dismissed illegally against the employment contract on October 31, 2022 (31) and negotiations were carried out. As no settlement was reached, the Ministry of Labor instructed to file a lawsuit only in mid-March 2023, so the lawsuit began.

The factory’s lawyers asked U Thaung Han about the fact that they are warned before dismissal and dismissed in the witness of the WCC team as U Thaung Han refused to repair a cooler machine.

U Thaung Han said that there is no warning and the factory hired the exterior mechanics as the machine is expensive and they don’t refuse to repair and one member of the WCC was not present so it is legally not valid to say that he was dismissed in the witness of the WCC.

Currently, the (34th) trial date has been rescheduled on October (14th) at 12:00 pm. STUM stated that Pepsi failed to protect workers’ right although being internationally famous brand and still using the strategy to extend the trail sessions until the employer can’t afford more.

The Pepsi factory is owned by LOTTE MGS Beverage (Myanmar) Co., Ltd. and Myanmar Golden Beverage Co., Ltd (MGS) company and Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., Ltd of Lottee group of South Korea collaborated since 2013-14 to manufacture Pepsi, 7Up, Mirinda, Mountain Dew and Sting softdrinks with the name of Lotte MGS.

There is a campaign to international customers to boycott Pepsi as the factory dismissed a worker who worked for 20 years without compensation and dismissed the sales in the same way without compensation on the grounds that they don’t hit the target.