"Labor rights violations at K SENG garment factory", 15 December 2023

At the K SENG Garment Factory, which was opened in Thadhukan Industrial Zone, Shwe Pytha Township, Yangon Region, [clothes for] international brands such as Beisie / Orsay / CLIQUE are being sewn and exported with a workforce of about 1,500 workers.

A worker at the factory said that...the workers are called in for excessive overtime without...permission to form a labor union or a workplace coordination committee.

Although the law stipulates that workers must be asked for overtime in the workplace, they are not doing so, forcing and threatening them, cutting overtime wages...the dissatisfied worker said.

It is reported that workers are being forced to work overtime [against] their will...without arranging [transport] for these workers to [return home].

"...People who have relationships with super[visors are] favored workers [who] have rights, but the rest of the workers don't. This is discrimination. And [they] don't give [us] social security cards [including for] Pregnant workers and those who take welfare medicine.

Workers are fired without permission," said the worker, who did not wish to be named.

In the factory [the workers must work] without any arrangements for drinking water, and when the workplace inspections come, they buy bottles of water and display them.

In addition, the toilet... is not properly arranged according to the number of workers. The worker said that because they have to work in hot and humid conditions without installing air conditioners, there is an imbalance of heat and cold, which affects their health.

[Issues include the factory] not forming a workplace coordination committee WCC; overtime and morning/night [shifts ordered against] the will of the workers; cutting overtime fees; ...the provision of drinking water for the workers in the factory is not clean[;] Medical supplies are not fully organized at the clinic; The factory does not...balance the heat and cold [temperatures] in the workplace. Toilet arrangement is not clean and adequate; The ferries organized by the factory are crowded, so the workers are always unable to pay. Workers who cannot work overtime [are] ask[ed]...to take time off, and when the [targets] are not met, [the] super[visors] communicate rudely.

[Translation via Google Translate]