By Min Ni Kyaw Nov 12, 2023
Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) factory workers said they were forced to work 6 hours straight without a break. The workers told Myanmar Labor News that they are forced to work continuously from 12:30 after lunch until 6:30 at night without any breaks.
"It's been about 5 months that we have been working continuously from 12:30 after lunch to 6:30 in the evening, when I have overtime," they said.
The factory workers said that the normal working hours of Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) garment factory are 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. However, as they have to work overtime for 2 hours every day, they usually finished only at 6:30 pm in the evening.
Section 63 of the 1951 Workshops Act, which is currently in force in Myanmar, stipulates that workers may not work for more than five hours at a time. The workers of Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) unanimously said that even though they have health issues for working straight lone time without break, they have difficulties to go to the hospital.
"We can't visit to the clinic. The clinic costs about 15,000 kyats per visit. The fare is about 3,000 kyats for a trishaw, so that we can’t effort. We only get 2,800 kyats after working for 2 hours of overtime,” the workers said.
Although Section 63 of the Workshops Act states that employees must take at least a half-hour break between working hours, the workers at the Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) factory say that they do not get the full hour break during their lunch time.
Lunch time is from 12:00 to 12:30. They don't want to give even this amount of rest time to the factory. About 15 minutes while eating, the security lady and the cleaning staff shout and drive out us saying to eat quickly. If the HR and the factory managers are there, they are worse. They yell more. In fact, HR and managers told them to yell. Because of that, the workers have to go back to work without a full break. In fact, we’ve been working for 10 hours a day, so we’re tired. We want to take a half-hour break in peace and quiet," the workers said.
It is stipulated that imprisonment for not more than three months or a fine of not less than twenty hundred thousand kyats or both punishments can be imposed if convicted of violating the Workshops Act.
In addition, workers at the Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) Garment Factory said that the drinking water inside the factory is salty water, making it uncomfortable for the them but they have no choice.
"The drinking water provided by the factory is salty. Can't drink either. The workers bought bottled water because they couldn't drink that salty one. But they can't bring the water bottle near them at all. We are not allowed to take any items starting from the phone into the workplace. We have to keep our own drinking water at the dining place. If we want to drink, we have to go to that place. There is also a law that stipulates the factory to provide a purify drinking water to the employees," said a Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) worker.
Section 20 of the Workshops Act stipulates 4 sub-sections to deal with drinking water in workshops, and sub-section 1 stipulates that factories and workshops must make effective arrangements to provide purify and sufficient drinking water.
The workers said that there is no WCC set up in the Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) factory and neither the emergency clinic.
"Drugs such as Htun Shwe Wah, inhaler and Paracetamol can't be taken into the workplace. There is no clinic in the factory. We were appointed to sew clothes but now we also have to work as a QC, where one has to stand all day. As women, we need some medicines. We can't take those either. We had to hide it,” a female garment worker said.
The female workers went on to say that the current garment workers have to work both as QC in addition to the type of work they were hired for because they have situations which aren’t allow them to refuse.
Cherry Apparel (Myanmar) Co., Ltd garment factory was operated with foreign investment and it has only been around 6 months since the factory reopened.
The workers told Myanmar Labor News that FieldCore jean fabrics are being manufactured currently and the factory is located in Anawrahtar Industrial Zone, Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon.
The factory is owned by a Chinese national and nearly 800 factory workers are working there, and no WCC is formed, the workers said.
