Min Ni Kyaw
March 8th
International Women’s Day
Riding a motorcycle for around 10 minutes feels like climbing a mountain for her. She prayed to reach to the clinic as soon as possible as she couldn’t even keep her body upright. She hopes to lie down on a branch. Her body was too heavy to carry out and not a favorable condition for her to stand up. Her lower parts of the body became wet and she felt sorry for the driver.
“There were too many bloods at the end of the trip,” said Ma Nandar Hlaing, explaining her trip to clinic after her miscarriage.
Beginning of events
It took place on October 17th. She didn’t know the awaiting future on that day. She didn’t feel anything except some bloods coming out in the morning when she came to work. She tried to submit a leave but came to Own Nae Kone where the factory locates which takes 10 minutes with motorcycle taxi from her village Nga Pyaw Taw anyway to guarantee her employment.
She works at New Talent Garment factory which locates at Own Nae Kone Village, near Hlae Ku Township. The factory have around 1,000 workers and manufacturing We Fashion and O’NEILL brand fabrics. The manager is a Chinese national man but the HR and supervisors are women.
“You absent yesterday because of the flood and you must come today no matter what,” the HR told to her.
Her village was also affected by the 2023 October Bago River flood, the incident that recuse teams from Yangon had to go and help.
Her daughter’s school and their house are also flooded and she took a leave as she worried to kept her daughter alone.
“I was nearly slipped and some bloods started to came out,” she said.
Her apocalypse
October 17th was her apocalypse. She was to take an ultrasound at the Social Security clinic at Bagu and its important for her as the clinic only provides the ultrasound healthcare on Tuesday.
“I asked for a leave to take an ultrasound rapidly but they denied. I have no choice but to work to avoid their abuses,” Ma Nandar Hlaing said.
She went to work in time with a motorcycle taxi and her colleagues was wondered when she arrived.
“I didn’t realize how I look and my colleagues asked me why I came. I didn’t feel anything but I noted it was something wrong while other people are warning at me continuously,” she said.
Her condition was reversed after working an hour her urinary tract feels pain and she can’t even sit on the sewing machine.
“My collegues told me to go to clinc,” she said/
She tried to ask all super to give her a gate pass via her line super but the line super denied and she too couldn’t work anymore.
“It was not our formal line super. She was a temporary line super who came to manage our line for a couple of days. Asking gate pass from her is too difficult. She seems like she doesn’t want to be shared verbal abuses from the superiors.
Some garment factories in Myanmar allow gate passes for a limited time, some cut their benefits for gate pass and some doesn’t allow at all.
"Daily wages are cut for taking gate pass at our factory. The all super is responsible for it and she allows when she is on a good mode." said Ma Nandar Hlaing.
She informed to all super after hours and it was denied too and she told to the HR. It was 11:00 am at that time.
“It took 2 hours for asking gate pass. I can’t even describe the amount of pain I felt. My colleagues are urging me to go quickly to the clinic,” she said.
She already see the upcoming scenes at that time.
“I know it. I had given birth to a baby and had crashed too. With those knowledges, I sees my future,” said Ma Nandar Hlaing with crying tone.
“My colleagues suggested me to resign and go if I don’t get gate pass. The agony I felt is like someone is squeezing my bladder. I than went to told to HR to resign,” she said.
She was feeling pain since 9:00 am and tried to get a gate pass for 2 hours so she decided to resign.
“it took another 2 hours to get resignation paper. It was 12:40 pm when I realize the miscarriage. I showed a photo to the HR manager and told that my child died because of them and I cried,” she said.
It was in the toilet when she knows about the miscarriage and she could took a photo as she used a pad before. Her 4 hours long agony haven’t relieved yet and she knows that her child died before knowing if the baby is a boy or a girl. She could tolerate the physical pain but can’t handle her emotional one and she cried with grievance on people who involved.
“I cried seriously for my child and also for the fact how they treated me,” she said.
She was permitted to resign after half an hours and a social security member help her go to clinic/
Actually, it is not an accident miscarriage. Line super, all super and HR have already know about her pregnancy and she was ready to go to the clinic.
“I was ready to take instructions from the clinic. This will not happen if they grant us a leave or a gate pass and even if it happens its relieved. My husband cried for the child too. We both are sad,” said Ma Nandar Hlaing.
The 2012 Social Security Law also stipulates (2) types of leave for the pregnant workers in addition to the 1951 leave and work leave law. Those two (2) types of leave are "pregnancy clinic leave" and "paternity benefit".
The right to visit a pregnancy clinic is stipulated in Chapter (5) Section (25) of the Social Security Law of 2012 and prescribed as follows
25. Notwithstanding anything contained in laws, rules, regulations, orders and instructions relating to Government servants, an insured female worker shall be entitled to the following benefits subject to the provisions -
(a) An approved hospital during pregnancy and childbirth; the right to receive free medical treatment at the clinic;
(b) The right to receive medical treatment for his child up to one year after delivery.
“Pregnant workers can visit to social security clinic or take leave if they feel unwell according to 1012 social security law. But in reality, workers can’t take it as the factory are abusing their rights seriously,” said a female member from trade union confederation.
She also said that the employer and factory officials tend to cover it up with money and solve it, if there are any serious injuries in the workplace instead of protecting pregnant women.
There are over 450,000 garment workers in Myanmar and they work in over 530 factories, according to the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association. 90 percent of the workforce are women.
Currently, It is also at a time when unions and federations are having difficulty attending to workers' grievances as the unions in the country and the leaders of the federations are being arrested by the military coup d'état.
Therefore, during the 3 years since the coup d'état, factory owners and those in charge of the workers have been violating the rights of the workers, as well as ignoring the rights of the law and the data is increasing year by year, according to Myanmar Labor News data.
Ma Nandar Hlaing decided to get pregnant to give birth to a son for her partner and a brother for her first daughter after 5 years of their marriage. Sge also did some pre-tests with doctors. Even though all the participants and the factory officials knew about the incident of miscarriage in the workplace, they did not take responsibility and contact them.
"Colleagues called and asked me but the factory did not, I don't know if they take it as a responsibility. I just keep waiting for the phone," she said.
On the day of the miscarriage, she had to quit my job without being allowed to go out of the factory so she didn't get that full salary, and it became a crisis for their house rent, and it cost them a lot of medical expenses.
“I won’t suffer agony and expense crisis if they would allow gate pass hurt for that day. Now I am physically suffering lost my income too.
She have to take a treatment for more than 2 months and it cost more than 500,000 kyats medical expenses and the most suffering one was losing baby.
“I believed the baby was a boy. I already have a daughter and I know the infant was a boy. It can be assumed that I lost a son,” she said.
She lost her monthly income of around 300,000 kyats during the treatment as she couldn’t work and her husband have to take care of the expenses without taking a single day off from his work.
According to the data from Myanmar Labour News, garment factories in Myanmar force pregnant workers to work overtime like other workers. asking for fabric outputs, not granting leaves, not giving full assessments to leaves, not allowing to visit the clinic and in addition the factories also force them to resign and dismiss them.
20 such incidents were recorded in 2023, including one miscarriage and one fetal death due to not allowing to leave the workplace immediately.
In both of these incidents, the factory did not grant the pregnant women to take leave easily and the workers were not held accountable, according to Myanmar Labor News.
A labor activist said that the employer is fully responsible for the worker whether they are male or female if there is any risk in the workplace.
" I think workers should go and file a complaint with the relevant departments if there is no accountability from the employer's side, " they said.
Ma Nandar Hlaing was unable to work for a period after the miscarriage so she could not make plans to file a complaint. She is currently trying to get her mental and body back to normal, and the only person she misses is her mother.
Even though her mother and her relatives forbade her from having a child, she tried to have one. It has been more than 3 months since Ma Nandar Hlaing did not contact her mother and relatives as she is afraid to inform about her miscarriage.
“Miscarriage is like giving birth to a child. Anyone who has given birth to a child knows this. I miss my mother. But I haven’t informed it yet as I am worried about her. There will be a lot of mental strength for me if my mom is beside. She will help me. But for now, I won’t inform her," she said.
The relevant social security doctors have advised Ma Nander Hlaing to consult and do preparatory treatment if she decided to get pregnant again during the period of treatment. As recommended by the doctors, Ma Nandar Hlaing will have another child.
“Me too, want to visit a good clinic although I can’t afford. I don’t feel inconsequential and I believe I will get another child,” she said.
For International Women's Day, we present the situation faced by female factory workers in the workplace.
