A labour with more than 9 years of service at the Tristate Myanmar factory who had a problem with the Chinese supervisor was unfairly fired, said by the labour himself.
"I have been working since 2014. My current tasks are writing patten designs by computer. It has been 9 years now when they fired me. That's why the HR manager forced him to quit and paid me 500,000 which is only my one-month wages. This is unfair. They fired us on August 17," said Ko Aung Pai Htoo, who was fired.
Ko Aung Pai Htoo said that he had not committed any offense during his over 9 years of service at the factory. Before being fired, on August 14th, the Chinese national supervisor's wife was interfering his job, so he went back home with the permission of the HR department.
“I asked the woman if I have to work overtime on Sunday. She said I don’t need to be and just stay at home. On Monday, the Chinese supervisor came to complain me why I didn’t come to work. I also told him the reasons. But the woman was sitting next to me and showing disapproval so that I came back home to prevent related inconveniences. The Chinese Supervisor didn’t sign for me and I came back with the gate pass from HR.”, said Ko Aung Paing Htoo.
Then on August 15th and 16th, he arrived the factory on time at 7:30 a.m., but was not allowed to enter the factory. On August 17th, the factory's HR manager, Ko Zin Win Soe, called Ko Aung Paing Htoo and said that he was fired.
"I told the HR manager to negotiate. He said that he could not and had no choice other than firing. I worked until August 14th. I got paid 500,000 compensations because I was fired. I said I can't accept it. You don't have time and neither do. He forced me to sign by saying just take what you got and leave.”, said Ko Aung Paing Htoo.
It is also known that an employment contract (EC) has been signed between the factory and Ko Aung Pai Htoo.
In the example of the EC contract stated by the Ministry of Labor, "If the employer wants to terminate the worker, the employer must give 30 days' notice." When an employee is terminated, the employer must pay severance pay based on the employee's salary (overtime, excluding insurance) according to length of service.
In addition, the EC contract stipulates that "The working conditions included in the employment agreement must be consistent with existing laws, and the employee's benefits must not be less than the benefits under existing laws." in Section 5(c) of the Employment and Skills Development Law (2013).
The Tristate Myanmar factory is a factory owned by Chinese nationals, with around 3,000 labours and nine Chinese nationals working there.
According to the information provided by DICA, the factory was built with foreign investment, and the factory is located in Pyin Ma Pin Industrial Zone, Mingalardone Township, Yangon.
The Tristate Myanmar factory had manufactured brands including M&S which has left Myanmar and other brands such as OTTO ၊ spider ၊ New Look and Nautica according to the data of Myanmar Labour News. Currently, the factory is mainly manufacturing Italy based Max Mara and Cp brands.
In addition, the Tristate Myanmar factory was reported in August 2022 when the labours reported Myanmar Labour News that they were forced to work overtime, including weekends and there was swearing in the workplace.
