By Min Ni Kyaw Oct 25, 2023
The workers told Myanmar Labor News that E&P Fashion Garment factory officials said that when the factory reopens, they will pay workers' wages through the ticket system.
"The factory has been closed for 3 months. At that time, we were only paid 4,800 a day. Now the fabric demands again and the fabric has started to be sewn, and they said that they will only pay with ticket system," said one of the workers.
A worker explained that the payment of wages with a ticket system is a system of paying wages based on the number of garments completed.
If they pay like that, the wages of the workers will be less than the previous month, and they are worried because their living conditions will get worse.
The E&P Fashion garment factory opened for a few days in July and then closed for the next 15 days. The workers said they were told through the line supers that they would only pay half their wages for those days off.
At first, we thought it was 2 or 3 days. Then the factory was closed for 15 days. On the day the factory closed, the workers were called to a meeting and the factory said they would pay 4,800 wages on days that they closed. About 2 days later, Line Super called me and asked if I could accept a weekend wage of 2,400 kyats. We accepted as we thought the factory would be closed only for a day or two. It actually took 15 days. When the factory reopened, we told them that we could not accept the reduction in wages, so they said that notice will be given to the workers who did not accept it," said one of the workers, clarifying the conditions of the factory.
The workers said that they filed a complaint to the labor office because the factory said they would announce a milk.
However, a female worker said that the factory did not announce a notice, so the salary for July was paid only 4,800 kyats.
"Starting from that month, there was no works until September. Now, later 20th October, the cloth orders have returned. And the factory told us that they will only pay with the ticket system," a worker told Myanmar Labor News.
The workers said that since the factory said that they will pay with a ticket system after more than half a month, the wages they would receive for October will be low and they are worried about the difficulties.
"The women's dresses that are being sewn now have a very low sewing fee. We don't get anything. 3 or 4 people sew the column and the column installation fee is only 3 kyats. Think how little it is. It will be difficult for them to get the money compared to the salary when they would also have to receive it equally. We also request to add a professional fee (expert fee) but the factory completely refused.” a worker said.
The workers said that some of the workers reduced their sewing work and staged a protest in the workplace as the factory refused.
"We do work a little. It's not that we don't sew. As we don’t sew much, they came to say that we don’t meet the hourly demand. Even though we told them what we requested, the factory is still in complete denial.” a worker explained.
It is believed that the E&P Fashion garment factory is willing to leave the workers without any negotiation.
"We think that the factory is making the workers to leave. Because last day, more than 30 workers left while working at the factory. The reason was they didn't get a gate pass. The factory did not say anything. Making it to be the workers’ mistake. If the workers leave on their own, it's easier for the factory to compensate them." a worker said.
E&P Fashion garment factory is located near the Thaung Gyi Police Station, Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone 5 and the owner is a Chinese.
The workers said that the factory is operating with around 500 workers and manufacturing the sinsay brand.
