By Yoon Sat - Jun 20, 2024
According to those who monitor labor issues, Yangon's factories are increasingly recruiting underage child laborers and exploiting their wages.
"Child labor has been recircuited for a long time. Now it's getting more frequent. As jobs are scarce and commodity prices are rising, children are increasingly hired, knowing that the wages are low. They work just to have a job and an income. Employers know this situation very well. They are exploiting the wages of the workers," said a local labor activist.
Some factories are forced to recruit under-age child workers due to labor shortages, and some factories also use under-age child workers as day laborers by paying them a small wage. Some factories recruit child workers to meet the labor demand for a period of three years, and they force them to work the same time as the adults, and pay only 4,800 kyats a day. The child labors are being deprived of other benefits and being forced to work as day laborers so the leaves benefits, overtime fees, fabric bonuses and the expert fees are being exploited.
It is reported that glue seed factory at No(22), Nyaung Yan Street, Shwe Pauk Kan Industrial Zone hires the most child laborers who have not yet reached the age of 18 in terms of percentage.
It is known that the child laborers at the factory are forced to work more than 8 hours a day, but they are not paid for overtime. They are working from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and being paid only 160,000 kyats under daily unfair pressure.
It is reported that there are 20 workers in the glue seed factory, 15 of whom are underage child workers.
Some of the workers said that those child labors are working in that factor due to the general crisis, they are being taken advantage of the fact that they are not yet of age.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) recently announced that the number of child laborers entering the workplace has also increased after the implementation of the military service law by the military council, along with the exponentially rise in commodity prices after the military coup in Myanmar.
