#news story
This is Myanmar Ju Chuan shoe factory, located on Min Ayar Road in Shwe Than Lwin Industrial Zone.
We are facing many different problems at the factory.
Workers want to file complaints, but they complain that even if they report the issues, nothing ever changes.
Whether things change or not is not the main point for us.
There are many serious problems in our factory. Drinking water is completely inadequate.
The water from the old building is not drinkable, while the water in the new building can be used for drinking.
The toilets smell very bad, and the doors are badly damaged.
When male workers go to the toilet, they have to pass in front of the women’s restroom.
The smell is extremely unpleasant, and the doors are broken. It is very uncomfortable and undignified.
We work overtime until 7:00 p.m. throughout the entire week, and that part is manageable.
On Saturdays, however, we have to work until 6:00 p.m. We are not allowed to refuse, and heavy pressure is applied. We are even told not to come to work anymore if we don’t comply.
On Sundays, some production lines are also required to work.
Workers are exhausted. Even though we need rest, we are not allowed to rest.
We are told that Sunday overtime cannot be refused either.
Sometimes we are threatened.
There is a rule that factories are only supposed to operate until 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays, and our factory should fall under that rule as well.
Is it legal to force us to work until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays? Is it allowed to call or force workers to work that late?
Snacks are provided if overtime continues past 6:00 p.m.
However, the snacks that were given were expired. When workers pointed out that the snacks were expired, management refused to acknowledge it. Now snacks are no longer provided at all, and instead we are given only 500 kyats per day.
The ferry transportation arrangement is also very poor.
Workers try to clock in three to five minutes early using fingerprint scans because the ferry buses do not wait.
Some workers miss the ferry buses and have to walk home on days when we work overtime until 7:00 p.m.
Some ferry buses do not arrive at the factory until 8:00 p.m.
All of this is completely inconvenient for workers.
The ferry buses sometimes do not arrive until 7:30 a.m., in the mornings even though work starts at 7:30 a.m.
On the way to the factory in the morning, workers have to eat snacks. We are not allowed to go outside during the lunch break. Since we work until 7:00 p.m., we want to eat something to keep our energy up.
However, we are not allowed to go outside.
We are also not allowed to eat snacks.
Even though work officially starts at 7:30 a.m., the machines are already turned on around 7:15 a.m. by the factory.
Workers are required to start working. In reality, we sometimes have to begin work before 7:30 a.m.
Even though we start early, if we leave just five minutes early in the evening, we are shouted at and scolded.
In the coming December, there will be many public holidays. Is it legal to force overtime during those holidays? If we are ordered to work, are we allowed to refuse and stay home?
There are cases where workers are forced to work through threats of warning letters.
What we find most unacceptable is being forced to work until 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays and being compelled to do overtime on Sundays.
There are also strong pressures such as not receiving full bonuses for shoe production, being told that refusing work is not allowed, and being threatened with warning letters.
The reason workers continue to do overtime is because of pressure from supervisors and line leaders. We work overtime even though we do not want to.
There are no workers who are able to go home simply because they do not want to do overtime.
We have reported overtime issues before. When that happens, overtime is stopped for about two weeks. Once workers quiet down, overtime is forced again.
After lunch and until overtime ends, there is absolutely no rest time given.
Even though snacks are supposedly provided for overtime, we are not even given time to eat those snacks.
