During August 2023, Myanmar Labor News reported 23 news stories about factories with labour  violations, covering 22 factories  (New Plus garment factory featured twice).

We were also able to publish a total of 42 news and articles on labor issues which included news about local factories in Myanmar, migrant workers, and about how local workers are struggling to cope with commodity prices against a background of no wage increase despite kyat devaluation.

Myanmar Labor News only published news on 60-70% of complaints reported to us, as after checking, the remaining 30% were not publishable for various reasons, including personal privacy and non-alignment with our policies.

The factories featured in August were 17 garment factories, a shoe factory, a food factory, a plastic bag factory, a fishing hook sport equipment factory, and a wood finishing factory.

Among these factories, the most common labour violations are cases related to overtime. Next most frequent  are refusal to grant leave, verbal abuse in the workplace and illegal dismissal. Among these cases, it is reported that some factories have responded well and the parties have reached a settlement.

In August, Myanmar Labor News featured 11 factories involved in overtime violations. There were a few violations that involved discrimination and threats of dismissal for those not wanting to work overtime,  but the majority of violations related to being forced to work through the night, increased working hours without an increase in pay due to the piece work system, and requirements to work continuously without a  day off.

Myanmar Labor News reported overtime violations in Sunrise Myanmar Fashion Garment (Thar Du Kan Industrial Zone); Huabo Times (Pathein); MaiyiBei (Yangon) and SEN YU Garment (both in Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone); Hunter Textile  and Full Win Safety (both Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone 4); Cheung Hing Myanmar and W & F Group (both in War Ta Yar Industrial Zone); Honor Apparel (Shwe Pyi Thar); S.M Myanmar (Shwe Than Lwin Industrial Zone); and Kittenish Knitting (Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone).  It was observed that, in these factories,  there were cases of continuous work and unrestricted working hours due to compulsory overtime and piece work, and factories not paying overtime even though workers were working more than 8 hours a day.

According to Myanmar labor law, normal working hours are 8 hours per day and 44 hours per week. Working beyond normal working hours is defined as overtime and the maximum amount of allowable overtime is 20 hours a week. Currently, most of the factories negotiate with workers to work overtime in excess of normal working hours, as well calling them for overtime on weekends twice a month.

Myanmar labor law identifies leave days as casual leave, earned (annual) leave and medical leave, in addition to legally designated public holidays and weekly rest days. It is also stipulated that any worker is entitled to the above mentioned rights to leave. However, it is still difficult for workers to enjoy their rights.

In August, Myanmar Labor News reported on 11 factories violating leave rights. These were: North Shore Group and Huabo Times (both in Pathein); Sudey Industrial Myanmar Co., Ltd  (Bago); Sunrise Myanmar Fashion Garment and New Plus (Thar Du Kan Industrial Zone); MaiyiBei (Yangon) and SEN YU Garment (both in Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone); Hunter Textile and Full Win Safety (Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone 4); Hong Kong Enterprise (Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone 1); Double Packing Myanmar plastic bag factory (Anawyahtar Industrial Zone);  and Cheung Hing Myanmar (War Ta Yar Industrial Zone).

Leave and overtime violations are connected. Factories are simultaneously forcing workers to work overtime and without days off, and are not granting leave days. Workers trying to take leave are considered to be absent without leave, and then lose benefits such as daily allowance, attendance bonus and skills allowance. Although this system was introduced in the past to disincentivise leave by cutting benefits when there was a shortage of skilled labour and factories were unable to produce if skilled workers were absent, nowadays this system is being applied in a way which harms worker welfare and benefits.

Leave violations include making it difficult to obtain all sorts of leave including medical leave; docking payments for taking leave and not giving any type of leaves including annual leave.

Experts observe that swearing and use of demeaning language in the workplace decreases productivity, and victims suffer psychologically and physically.  Under Myanmar law, action against verbal abuse can be pursued under the Penal Code. Swearing in factory workplaces is connected to differences in rank and authority. The severity of the abuse directly reflects how poor quality the factory management is.

In August, 10 factories were reported to have incidents of verbal abuse in the workplace. They are: North Shore Group, Sudey Industrial Myanmar Co. Ltd, Sunrise Myanmar Fashion Garment, Huabo Times, Maiyi Bei (Yangon), Hunter Textiles, Full Win Safety, SEN YU Garment, New Plus and Honor Apparel Co, Ltd.

Although the law clearly stipulates the steps that must be taken to terminate an employee, employers in Myanmar continue to have weak compliance with this, and dismiss staff on a personal basis. Furthermore, whenever a worker is terminated, an underlying cause is lack of knowledge about, and non-compliance with, the employment contract. In addition, the people in charge of the factories do not respect the law, but rather take advantage of its weaknesses, with the result that workers suffer. Labour Office officials also do not act in accordance with the law, leading workers to feel that they are being kicked when they are already down.

In August, Myanmar Labor News reported that seven factories fired workers without complying with the law. They are Sudey Industrial Myanmar, Honor Apparel, Double Packing Myanmar, S.M Myanmar, Kingsrich (Myanmar) Fashion, Tristate Myanmar and the Taw Win wood finishing factory.

These factories have variously been reported for having exploited weaknesses in the law and have fired workers on probation, fired those who asked for higher wages and or refused to work overtime, and failed to pay severance. Despite some of the workers being loyal long-term workers, they did receive their full entitlements on being dismissed. Although some negotiations took place to try to resolve this, the dismissed worker  only received about half of their legal entitlements.

Some of the factories in the above lists appear for two or three types of violations.  There are 9 which  have violations related to leave and verbal abuse (North Shore Group, Sudey Industrial Myanmar, Sunrise Myanmar Fashion Garment, Huabo Times, Maiyi Bei (Yangon), Hunter Textiles, Full Win Safety, YU Garment and New Plus). A total of six factories were reported to have violations concerning leave, overtime and verbal abuse (Sunrise Myanmar Fashion Garment, Huabo Times, Maiyi Bei (Yangon), Hunter Textiles,  Full Win Safety and SEN YU Garment). Another two factories - Sudey Industrial Myanmar, and Honor Apparel  - also had three types of violation: Sudey Industrial Myanmar factory was reported as having violations of leave rights, verbal abuse , and illegal dismissals. Honor Apparel Co., Ltd. factory was reported for verbal abuse, illegal layoff and overtime violations.

Brands made by the factories reported on in August are VAUDE, Schoffel, GLOBAL WORK, CINEMA CLUB, HARE, LEPSIM, URBAN FUNCTION, SINCE 1930, UNITED ATHLE, LOWRY'S FARM, AIR THERMAL, ZARA, Sinsay, Easy, P&VV, H – ESSENTIAL, OVS, MANA, Pilar Prieto, Pagattin, De Facto, Reserved, So cute, Jichodo, Next Plc, Feel Sky, WOOLLY TEC, URGE, FO, Mavi, DESTINATION, CHIP CLIP, Little Kids, SOUTH BLUE, HOUSE, WORKS LONDON, mayoral, CRIVIT, Global Recycled Standard, H&M, Max Mara, and CMP. The brands mentioned are from companies based in European Union countries, Japan, USA, UK, Turkey, Korea, and Australia. Some of these brands have announced that they will no longer source from  Myanmar.