By Hsu Latt Phyu - Jan 21, 2024
It is known that IGE FASHION ACCESSORIES(Myanmar) Co.,ltd which locates at Twin Thin Thite Wun U Nyo Street, Shwe lin ban Industrial Zone, Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon is operating with more than 400 workers.
Those workers said that they are being violated through the facts such as not having an EC (employment agreement between employer and employee) contract, being demanded excessive fabric targets, being directly managed by the foreigners and not being appointed as permanent despite of long term service which have stipulated in the Myanmar Labor Law.
The factory own by the Chinese national is manufacturing H&M and Pokémon brands caps and there is no trade union in the factory.
“More than 200 among more than 400 workers are day laborers. Some have experience for more than a year as a day laborer. The employer do not assign them as permanent workers. They can’t contribute to social security and loss their benefits. They were not entitled to long term Thingyan holidays. They are fired if there are less tasks and recalled back if there are many. They are being violated in such that way and we seek for a resolvent,” said the worker.
More than half of the workers in the workplace are day laborers, some of whom have been working for more than a year, but without being appointed as permanent employees, the workers say they are losing their benefits as other workers.
In addition, the worker said that since there is no employer-employee agreement in the workplace, they would like to request that it be signed.
Regarding the workplace violations, the workers said that they want to appeal that the foreigners not to manager them directly, to ask only the fabric targets that the worker can sew and to appoint the long-serving day laborers as permanent workers.
"There is no union in the workplace. There is a workplace coordination committee called the WCC, but it is made up of only people from the employer's side, so there is no way to help solve workplace violations. Fabrics targets are demanded such as 200 fabric per hours. We can’t even go to toilet or have a break to drink water, to meet the targets they demanded,” said the workers.
The working hours are from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm and the break times are 40 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes before overtime but the workers can’t even enjoy the break time as they have to work during it to meet the targets they are demanded. So that the workers said they want to request that fabric targets be reduced to a mutually agreeable amount.
