Myanmar: Women garment workers forced to work overtime facing safety risks returning home at night
Summary
Date Reported: 24 Apr 2023
Location: Myanmar
Companies
Bestseller - Buyer , Primark (part of Associated British Foods) - Former buyer , ONLY (part of Bestseller) - Buyer , Vero Moda (part of Bestseller) - Buyer , Zara (part of Inditex) - Buyer , Huabo Times - Supplier , Inditex - BuyerAffected
Total individuals affected: 1000
Workers: ( 1000 - Location unknown , Clothing & textile , Gender not reported )Issues
Occupational Health & Safety , Denial of leave , Mandatory overtimeResponse
Response sought: Yes, by BHRRC
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Huabo Times allegedly supplies to BESTSELLER (parent company of ONLY, VERO MODA), Inditex (parent company of ZARA) and Primark; all three companies provided responses to a request for comment from the Resource Centre. Primark stated it stopped sourcing from the factory in Oct 2021.
Source type: News outlet
"Workers are forced to work overtime on Sundays against their will", 24 April 2023
...At the HuaboTimes Garment Factory in Mazzu Street, workers are reportedly being forced to work overtime by threatening them against their will.
"At the factory, OT [workers] are required to come down every week on Sundays. They can't go down, they can't refuse. If they don't go down, the...line supervisors...will call them. They have to [work] until 8:15 at night. It's dangerous for the sisters because[they are working] until...night when the politics are bad...It's not convenient for them to go through the military checkpoints at night, and the sisters are having a hard time because they can't go [to work]," said an employee of the factory.
The factory mainly sells brands such as Only and ZARA and is said to be operating with around 1,000 people.
On Sunday OT...is from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 9,600 kyat is paid immediately.
"Because of this, my health is affected, I am very tired, I am not allowed to do anything related to welfare and family matters. If my health is affected and I am sick at work, I am not allowed to leave, I am not even given a gate pass," said one of the workers.
It is said that the pressure on the workers and forcing them to work overtime has been going on since before the Thingyan period until now.
[Translation via Google Translate]