"40 percent salary reduction for the period Vicsong shoe factory is closed", 13 April 2024

According to...Vicsong-Myanmar footwear Co., Ltd factory officials, the workers are only [receiving] 40 percent of their wages for the period the factory is closed. The factory...has around 2,000 workers...The workers said they were making...[s.Oliver] brand shoes.

"... Even if the work is closed, our workers will not be paid the full 5,800 wages. Issued at 40 percent. The workers are suffering because the work is closed from time to time." said a factory worker...

Workers said that such factory closures are held every February, and in some years the factory is closed for more than a month...

"The factory knew in advance that they would come to inspect the factory, and prepared everything that needed to be prepared. The people in the office called the workers and started teaching them to lie. The main thing is not to mention the 40 percent salary.” A worker said.

The workers also said that the workers in the factory are not always provided with drinking water...[and] the shuttle bus[es] are not arranged adequately, so every shuttle ride is jammed, and the workers who have to go away have to stand up.

“[The transport] is pretty bad. They come back tired from work. Again, standing up often makes me sick. There is no clinic in the factory. No medicine. When the inspection team came, the medicine box was opened. If you ask for medicine, you won't get it. He even threatened to fire me if I didn't [do] overtime on Sunday. "The toilets are often dirty..." said one of the workers...

[Translation via Google Translate]