Workers at a Yangon garment factory have entered the second week of a strike called over the sacking of a colleague and the installation of CCTV cameras near a women’s toilet.
The strike by about 200 workers at the ‘Handsome’ factory in Dagon Seikkan township began on October 26 after the sacking of their colleague,Sithu Min,who was reportedly accused by management of refusing to work overtime.
Striking workers said he was sacked without sufficient reason and responded by sending a four-point demand to management.
It calls for Sithu Min’s reinstatement, the removal of a CCTV camera in a passageway leading to women’s toilets and for the workers to receive the rights to which they are entitled under the labour laws. The workers, who have established a protest camp outside the factory, also want to be paid for the duration of the strike.
Factory manager Myat Kay thi told Mizzima that management had been meeting to discuss the strike and wanted the issue to be settled peacefully.
One of the striking workers, Phyu Sin, said the installation of a CCTV camera near the women’s toilet amounted to an “infringement of the privacy and modesty of female workers.”
Phyu Sin said the workers had no objection to surveillance cameras being installed anywhere else in the factory.
“But we demand their removal of the cameras installed near the women’s toilets,” she said.
Strike leader Yan Naing said the workers were receiving assistance from the Dagon Seikkan branches of the National League for Democracy and the National Unity Party.
