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Article

14 May 2024

Author:
Min Ni Kyaw, Myanmar Labour News

Myanmar: Garment workers intimidated into doing overtime shifts

See all tags Allegations

"Gainway international garment factory intimidates and scolds the workers who refuse to work overtime", 14 May 2024

Workers from Gainway International Garment factory said that the factory intimidate[s] and scold[s] the workers who don’t work additional overtime after the mandatory 2 hours one. The factory is manufacturing [for] Elam and MCW brands currently.

“...They don’t inform in advance and [they are] calling [workers in] on Sundays as well,” the workers said.

...the supervisors are intimidating the workers for not working the overtime.

“The super[visor] got angry [at] 6 workers who didn’t work the additional overtime. They left at 6:00 pm instead of 8:00 pm. The supervisors told the workers to leave at 4:00 pm if they can’t work all overtimes. We are working 2 hours of overtime daily as the expenses are not covered without overtime, the employers are intimidating other employers regarding job,” said a worker...

“They don’t give a break time until 6:00 pm overtime. They neither provide any snacks, They give some snacks if we work until 8:00 pm but have to eat while working only if [management] aren’t around,” said the worker.

The workers said that...the workers [are] making their salaries different from each other [due to differences in bonuses paid to workers]...

...there is no heat and cold balance adjusting in the factory [and] there are some departments where the workers have to work under the heavy sunlight all day.

“The workplace is too hot. We already asked for the air conditioner but the factory didn’t [do anything]...The temperature is always around 37, 38 and 39 degrees Celsius. But they lied in the documents saying it’s just 34 degrees Celsius. The clinic only provide[s] one mineral soft drink per two people and sometimes we don’t even get it,” the worker explained the working condition under the high temperature...

[Translation via Myanmar Labour News]

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