By Hsu Latt Phyu - Aug 29, 2024
Workers from SIOEN MYANMAR garment factory Makhayar Minthargyi Road, Industrial Zone (2), Hlaing Thar Yar Township said that they are losing legal benefits and leaves.
The workers also said that the factory asks for excessive fabric outputs and exploits the workers. The factory is owned by an Indian national and manufactures SYNQ and SIOEN brands apparels.
Workers said that they are not entitled to medical and casual leaves and 6,000 kyats in daily wages, 1,000 kyats in subsidies, a 45,000 kyats attendance bonus, and expert fees (calculated proportionally) are deducted for each missed day of work due to health issues.
“The day laborers are hired under a contract stipulating that each of them must complete a two-month probationary period, after which their continued employment will be determined based on the employer's discretion. Two workers from Line 5, who had been employed for over a month, were dismissed by their supervisors on July 5, 2024. However, they were informed that they must continue working until August 5, 2024, and would only receive their salary on August 10, 2024. Although the employer should have paid the workers immediately upon dismissal, they chose to delay payment, causing unnecessary hardship for the workers,” said a worker from the factory.
The workers said that the employer is dismissing the workers before they complete two months of work and instructing them to reapply as new hires. The employer is exploiting the workers by using this practice to avoid providing permanent employment benefits, such as legal leave entitlements, and effectively nullifies the employees' length of service, said by a worker who is not satisfied.
“Dismissing the workers before they complete two months of work and instructing them to reapply as new hires is abusing the labor rights and cheating the law in order to avoid providing permanent employment benefits and to nullify the services,” a worker said. The workers are also not get paid daily wages for the day offs as well.
“A seamstress is assigned to operate two machines simultaneously and sew 3 to 4 points to complete 40 lumberjack outfits per hour. Due to working non-stop because of the constant pressure to meet these demands, supervisors often resort to verbal abuse when quality issues arise in the apparel. The janitorial workers in the factory are required to clean the owner's house every Saturday on a rotating basis. As they are hired specifically for factory janitorial work, they shouldn’t be asked to perform tasks outside their designated responsibilities,” said a female worker who sees the conditions.
The Workplace Coordination Committee, which is supposed to represent workers, fails to address these issues as it is not elected by us but rather appointed by the employer. Therefore, workers are hoping changes regarding the their losses and their demands are
1. To allow for legal leaves, including casual and medical leave.
2. To stop requiring janitorial workers to clean the employer’s house every Saturday.
3. To end the unreasonable excessive fabric outputs demands
4. To not dismiss workers before they complete two months of service and then require them to reapply as new employees.
5. To refrain from dismissing workers without cause or in violation of established rules.
