Nearly four years have elapsed since the military takeover in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, the garment industry has become a focal point for severe labour rights violations.
In an article on its website, IndustriALL notes that workers in the sector face unpaid overtime and unreasonably high production quotas, while wage delays are a recurring issue. There are also reports of underage workers being employed in violation of regulations.
Verbal abuse is commonplace due to the absence of labour unions. Moreover, military intervention is not uncommon during instances when workers demonstrate against employers for unpaid wages.
IndustriALL detailed a case at one factory where workers received a daily wage of 10,000 Kyat ($4.70) and were coerced into overnight shifts while several staff were fired for refusing overtime. Employees were reportedly also denied medical benefits despite deductions from their pay for social security.
Equally workers are commonly fired for striking over working conditions.
The union cited that the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM) has voiced its concern over the excessive overtime and unattainable targets set for garment workers. The CTUM reports that since the coup, workers have been stripped of their legal protections; absences lead to wage cuts or termination.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has identified several indicators of forced labour in Myanmar’s garment industry, including exploitation of vulnerability, deception, physical violence, intimidation and threats, withheld wages, and imposed overtime.
In response to these violations, the ILO has excluded Myanmar’s military junta from its governing body meetings and halted technical assistance. The ILO also plans to discuss measures to ensure Myanmar’s compliance with the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations at the 113th session of the International Labour Conference in 2025.
On 13 November 2024, IndustriALL Global Union announced that it acted against three major garment brands Next, New Yorker, and LPP, by filing complaints with OECD’s National Contact Points (NCPs) for continuing business with factories in Myanmar despite blatant workers’ rights abuses.
IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie said: “Brands that stay in Myanmar are benefiting from an environment of fear, forced labour, and exploitation. There are widespread, comprehensive reports on the extensive violations of workers’ rights and there is no freedom of association in the country. Human rights due diligence requires worker involvement and independent verification, which is impossible under the military rule.”
The military junta has also allegedly intensified scrutiny over migrant workers and profiteering from their remittances.
The National Unity Government (NUG) appealed to Thailand not to assist in oppressing Myanmar workers in Thailand by sharing their personal data with the junta or enforcing remittance through channels controlled by the junta at inflated exchange rates.
“For the sake of millions of Myanmar workers, including members of IndustriALL, living under the oppression of the military junta, we repeat our call to international brands to divest their business in Myanmar. Their businesses are built on the basis of forced labour and workers’ blood in the country. Workers’ rights must be defended and democracy restored in Myanmar,” Atle Høie added.
Last month, Just Style reported that the ongoing conflict in Myanmar as its military government loses control over territory to rebel groups, affected the country’s apparel and textile industry.
Although the factory at the centre of the allegations is not a member of MADE Myanmar, MADE project leader Jacob Clere acknowledged the issue of excessive and occasionally forced overtime “has been a challenge in Myanmar’s garment manufacturing sector for a decade.”
While 80% of cases occur at factories not producing for MADE members, Clere said the issue is particularly challenging because it is “an imported phenomenon”.
“It is common in China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and several other garment and footwear production hubs. So, there is an unfortunate culture of normalcy across much of South, Southeast and East Asia with regard to high amounts of factory overtime being routinely tolerated. That should not be the case. We also see this now in the reports reaching us from China, Cambodia and Laos, where recent migrant workers from Myanmar tell us they are working in those countries under conditions of bonded labour and often extreme forced overtime. Indeed, among the Myanmar workers who have left Myanmar, we find in our data that a majority of them report overtime is more extreme in other countries and more likely to be forced.”
Speaking specifically for factories producing for MADE members, Clere said despite the heavy challenges faced by producers and workers in Myanmar, legal compliance is normal in the vast majority of cases among the 165 factories currently producing for its membership.
“When rights violations are alleged or occur, they are most often swiftly communicated via factory level trade unions, workers’ committees, labour rights groups and other mechanisms, then investigated and remediated where appropriate. In only one factory last year we were fully unsuccessful in remediating a pattern of repeat violations on overtime pay and voluntary overtime. That factory was then carefully phased out as a supplier by our members and the facility closed down. That was a sad outcome for all involved, as several hundred workers lost their jobs, but it was a necessary last recourse.”
“Our project staff and affiliates work daily on-the-ground with factories in Yangon, Bago, Pathein and elsewhere. We find that access to remedy is the normal situation among most factories where we work.”
But he said the low wages received by Myanmar factory workers was an issue.
Myanmar’s minimum wage has not been formally adjusted since 2018.
“This deserves more attention and action from buyers, but that surely needs to come from continued business engagement and more sophisticated purchasing practices. For instance, squeezing order prices which are paid to factories lower in a context where wages are recognised to be below any semblance of a living wage ought not be allowed by the sustainability teams and social compliance departments. Some companies have systems for communicating such matters internally, but many do not. Said differently, buying teams and compliance teams within companies ought to have a regular dialogue on purchasing prices and should create systems in which extremely low wages are disincentivized.”
Meanwhile Vicky Bowman, Director of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, told Just Style it was clear there are many factors in the deteriorating situation in Myanmar which are leading to a higher risk of forced labour in the garment sector, including power and logistics disruptions, and greater insecurity after dark.
“Despite systemic low wages that means overtime is an essential part of their pay, workers are less willing to work late, and also want to enjoy their legal rights to paid leave, which some factories are denying them.”
She also reiterated the importance of positive and strong relationships between buyers and factories.
“How factory management behave, and respond to the deteriorating situation, partly depends on whether they have solid long-term relationships with their buyers. It also depends on whether these brands are closely monitoring events on the ground, and engaging regularly, directly or indirectly, with management and workers, including factory-level and in-country unions. The situation varies from day to day. Relying on fly-in-fly-out auditors is not enough.”
But she said one thing is clear: workers in Myanmar do not want the better brands to stop sourcing.
“Workers know that their own alternatives are limited, and are highly likely to lead to worse forms of forced labour, in brothels and scam centres, forced conscription in Myanmar, or debt bondage and wage theft, after being trafficked across Myanmar’s borders to China, Thailand and Cambodia. That’s why workers want brands to step up, not step out.
“They want brands to address increased forced labour risks through ongoing due diligence, and use their leverage on suppliers, including through better sourcing practices. They want them to earmark funds for higher wages, and support workers’ calls for a significantly higher statutory minimum wage, which is worth a third of what it was when it was last set in 2018.”
“Labour rights violations worsening in Myanmar warn unions” was originally created and published by Just Style, a GlobalData owned brand.
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