"TAKASHIMA SPORTS glove factory workers are being exploited", 14 November 2023

The workers from TAKASHIMA SPORTS CO,LTD said that the factory is operating with more than 200 workers and they are being exploited...

It is reported that the glove factory is located in Shwe Than Lwin Industrial Zone in Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon Region and manufactures Mont Bell brand gloves and is owned by a Japanese national.

“The working hours are from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. The factory operates on a ticket fee system. For example, a pair of gloves is paid from 10 kyats to 500 kyats. So...a worker gets as much as she can sew. So that we work hard and we sew gloves that are equivalent up to more than 400,000-500,000 kyats. The employer also said that we can get as much as we can sew but when they issue the salary, they just give the daily wages and overtime fee, exploiting our hard work,” said an unsatisfactory worker.

In addition, the worker said that due to the electricity outage in the workplace from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., they were pressured to sign [an agreement] that 3 hours of overtime work would be cut...

Each person is paid 50,000 kyats...The rules set are not to date with the colleges, not to wear wide neck shirt, short skirts and pants and some workers were paid only 5,000, 20,000 and 30,000 kyats if they did not comply with the rules.

Such terms and conditions are not based on the EC contract but are unilaterally imposed by the factory, he said. The entrepreneur force[s] them to sign [a] warning if they do not comply with the unilateral rules. It is said that they [wages are] cut by 10,000 kyats for every warning they had to signed.

When the Ministry of Labor announced to give the allowance [of] 30,000 kyats, the workers were informed that they would be only paid 30,000 kyats of the half-monthly allowance of 50,000 kyats and they [lost] 20,000 kyats.

According to the Ministry of Labor's announcement to provide an additional allowance of one thousand kyats per day, the factory will pay one thousand kyats per day. The worker said that the factory announced that the 1000 kyats will be deducted if they are absent, and hourly deductions for taking the gate pass.

After that, the workers were forced to sign that they would no longer get paid the half a month's allowance, saying that their allowance would be increased by 5,600 kyats.

The worker said that in the glove factory, the benefits provided by law, such as casual leave, seniority leave, and medical leave, were not given, and [if] they take a leave for a day due to illness, daily wages of 4,800 kyats and attendance bonus of 20,000 kyats, a total of 24,800 kyats were cut.

"We have to go to work even if we are sick. If we go back...home just after arriving [to] work because of serious illness, the daily wages will be deducted for that day. The medical leave is provided by social security but the employer does not [pay]. If a worker [is] sick...long term, he or she would be asked by HR to leave work," said the worker. 

The worker said that there is no labor union in the workplace. The workplace negotiation committee WCC has been formed but it was unilaterally formed by the employer. There is no negotiations on labor disputes in the workplace, and the worker said that the WCC are only working according to the employer's wishes, so there is no way to negotiate and resolve them.

The workers said that they want to appeal to [be] pa[id] the prescribed ticket fee correctly, not to impose unilateral rules on the workers, not to cut the half-monthly allowance that they are paying, not to cut ten thousand kyats if they are asked to sign a warning, to allow medical, causal and seniority leave that the workers are entitled to.