By Ma Ma - Feb 26, 2025

Workers from the Chinese-owned Jin Wei garment factory say they are facing hardships because the factory employs more than 400 workers only as daily wage laborers without appointing them as permanent employees, violating their rights.

This factory is located on U Aung Thu Road, Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone. Workers are only hired as daily wage laborers. There is no trade union within the workplace, and labour rights violations are occurring.

"The factory has more than 400 workers, but none of them are employed as permanent staff. They don’t even ask for labour cards when recruiting workers. The daily wage is only 4,800 kyats. But the employer pays however they want when it’s time to receive wages. Sewing operators get 500,000 kyats, while other departments receive just over 400,000 kyats. They don’t inform us about our exact wages in advance and just pay us as daily labourers,” said one factory worker.

More than 100 underage workers are reportedly being employed without medical fitness certificates from doctors within the workplace, and they are made to work the same as adult workers.

The toilets used by workers are also unclean, causing health issues.

"The assistant supervisors and supervisors are not the ones managing the workers—Chinese supervisors directly oversee everything. They assign work not based on workers’ skills but on their own preferences. They yell at us or even curse when assigning task. The supervisors also shout and curse at us when demanding production targets," said another worker.

Workers have reached out to the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM) for assistance in addressing these labor rights violations.

Workers are demanding that underage employees should not be made to work the same as adult workers, that Chinese supervisors should stop direct management and verbal abuse, that supervisors should not shout at workers when setting production targets, and that workers should be transitioned from daily wage labourers to permanent employees.