By Ma Ma - Nov 29, 2024
At the Chinese-owned DIXINDA Garment Co., Ltd., workers are facing challenges such as being unable to drink water or take restroom breaks due to excessive production quotas, while also dealing with the factory's Workplace Coordination Committee (WCC), which reportedly favors the employer.
The factory, part of DISHANG GROUP, is located in the Anawrahta Industrial Zone, Hlaing Thar Yar Township.
Operating within a six-unit compound, with four units actively functioning, the factory employs over 1,400 workers and manufacturing apparal brands such as DEO and Slazenger. It is also learnt that is no trade union formed in the factory.
“They demand output demands that workers cannot meet. For example, a production line with 30 workers, including supervisors and helpers, is required to make 120 garments per hour. To meet these one-sided targets, we’re not allowed to use the restroom or even drink water. Even when there are urgent personal issues, they won’t issue gate passes because they’re worried it will affect the target. The managers do not consider the workers’ conditions at all. If a Chinese manager insists on overtime, our local managers comply without questioning whether it aligns with labour laws. For rescheduled workdays, they don’t notify workers or the WCC. Instead, clerks forge workers’ signatures on attendance forms as instructed by the managers,” workers explained.
Workers also complained about unplanned overtime. They are often told to work overtime without prior notice and are pressured to comply.
Additionally, Sundays are not day off in the factory and workers are required to work on those days as well.
In the parking department, workers are frequently made to work overtime starting at dawn, with shifts running from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. After just a 30-minute lunch break, they are required to continue working without additional breaks.
“The drinking water in the factory is problematic. When we complain about salty water, they buy outside water, but it’s not purified water—it’s water from a machine-loaded three-wheeler. Furthermore, the WCC is entirely under the employer’s control. The factory selects whomever they want to be on the committee, and workers don’t even know who the WCC members are. We don’t know whom to report workplace difficulties to,” one worker stated.
Currently, workers are seeking assistance from the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM) to resolve the issues they face. Their Demands are to stop pressuring workers into overtime, to not require overtime on Sundays and day offs, to not force workers into all night overtime shifts, to only require make-up work with workers’ consent and to allow workers to elect their representatives for the WCC.
