By Min Ni Kyaw - Jan 30, 2025
I want to talk about everything regarding the factory's situation and the workers' conditions without leaving anything out.
I don’t know who spoke to MLN about the situation in the factory, but both the person who reported it and MLN deserve my sincere gratitude.
The situation in the factory is actually worse than what was reported in the news. I won’t repeat everything here.
After the news was published, a notice letter was sent to the factory. I don’t know how they found out. The Secretary-General of the Manxi Labor Office himself came down and handled the matter through a translator.
They were very scared. A notice was issued, which meant negotiations had to take place.
The day after the news was published, the Secretary-General arrived. He said he had spoken to the factory owner on a holiday and would work to resolve the issues, including improving food provisions. He stated that Chinese factory owners do not mistreat Myanmar workers and that Chinese law does not allow such mistreatment. He also said that if there were any further dissatisfaction or inconvenience, workers could report directly to their office.
After saying this, he left.
By the evening, the supervisors were summoned.
They were told that from now on, Sundays would be designated as rest days and that meals would be improved compared to before.
That’s what they said, but whether they will actually do it remains to be seen.
What I want to emphasize is that forcing workers to do overtime until 11 or 11:30 PM is completely unacceptable.
A regular workday runs from 7:45 AM to 6:30 PM, totaling more than 10 hours.
Everything after 6:30 PM is overtime.
With only two days off per month, how can workers possibly endure working until 11 or 11:30 PM?
Even machines need rest.
While workers have no break time and are already exhausted, their food is also insufficient.
That’s where health issues start to arise.
Over time, the garment workers simply can't take it anymore.
Production slows if they can’t keep up,.
When production slows, the supervisors get pressured from above.
To protect themselves, the supervisors shift the burden onto the workers below them, demanding higher output.
They resort to insults and humiliation to force compliance.
This is the problem.
And the root of this problem is excessive working hours.
Things would be more manageable if there is a weekly rest day and overtime is limited to 10 or 10.5 hours from Monday to Friday,.
The factory management (for now) has said they will implement weekly rest days and improve meal provisions.
However, it remains unclear how they will handle overtime, so we have to wait and see if conditions will actually improve for the workers.
There would be better cooperation between employers and workers if the factory management only demands reasonable production targets (which workers understand is necessary under critical circumstances.
The summary I want to share with MLN is about the resolution process, what was communicated to the workers, and what needs to be monitored.
(P.S. The comments under the news post were written by line supervisors and HR staff trying to make the factory look good. They are deliberately posting misinformation. The birthday party photos may look nice, but in reality, there is nothing enjoyable about working here.)
Thank you, MLN.
