Rangoon (Mizzima) – In the absence of proper law enforcement and means to abide by legal measures, almost all Burmese workers are subjected to forced labour by their employers.

With the economy in a tailspin, a result of the ruling junta's decades of economic mismanagement, and lack of knowledge of labour rights, has left Burmese workers with no choice but to accept whatever is offered by their employers.

Burmese workers even at some of the factories in industrials zones like Hlaing Tharyar and Shwe Pyi Thar in Rangoon, the country's commercial and most-urban city, where the majority of businesses, factories and industries are located, have reportedly had problems with their employers over hardship with workplace conditions and deprivation of their basic rights.

Time and again abuses cause friction between workers and their employers in several factories in industrial zones, where there are at least 19 industries.

In September 2007, workers at the Opal garment Factory in Hlaing Tharyar Township, stopped working after complaining that they have been deprived of their rights and are not duly paid. This is an instance of the common problem between workers and employers.

However, the following week the company agreed to give all workers what amounted to about a 25-percent pay increase, accounting for Kyat 5,000 per month, and the employees agreed to return to work.

Among the many concerns, the biggest concern for Burmese workers, who are mostly hand-to-mouth wage earners, is their pay structures. They are expected to work six days a week and earn a reduced pay of Kyat 200 (US$0.16) a day as basic pay, with the remainder paid as bonuses for perfect attendance and not taking leave etc.

However, these "bonuses" actually fills the majority of their wages, usually above Kyat 20,000 per month. But the bonus system penalises any employee who misses a day's work because they lose a lot more than their daily wages, compelling the workers to work extra work to get bonuses.

The system sets that an employee, who takes a day's leave, is deprived of those bonuses. And with the insufficient basic pay, workers are in a difficult situation.

Reflecting a common woe of the struggling business, a senior management staff with the Opal factory said, many manufacturers were unable to afford pay increases.

Other business owners and factory managers say they continually face a range of difficulties that threaten their operations, including fluctuating currency exchange rates, manufacturing cost increases, electricity shortages, fuel price hikes and, more recently, cyclone damage.

The staff said it was almost impossible for the hardship-ridden business firms to increase the salaries and care for workers' basic requirements.

A leading economist in Rangoon said labour wages in Burma is extremely low when compared to other developing countries and even lesser then that of Bangladesh.

Besides the pay, demeaning work places are among the major concerns of Burmese workers. While employers try to maximise the utility of the workers by introducing new and advanced technologies to reduce redundancy, workers find the workplace demeaning.

In some factories, employers have introduced a card system to regulate the number of workers that can go to the bathroom at any given time. While employers said, it is to reduce workers wasting time in toilets by chatting, workers find it demeaning and inconvenient. But ridiculously, the toilet cards are limited. For instance, in a workplace of about 70 workers, there may be as few as three toilet cards.

Another instance of inconvenient work place is the complaint amongst garment industry workers that they cannot wear their slippers inside the factory, and it hurts their feet after a long day's standing up and working. But employers reply that footwear can damage the material that they produce.

Among the many another major concerns of factory workers is that they are deprived of extra time to attend other works for extra income. But the overtime rates, which are paid by the factories, though it is double a day's salary, amount to very little.

Existing labour laws of Burma allow factories to make full-time employees work for 44 hours a week, with an exception granted to factories that operate 24 hours a day, where they can work 48 hours. And overtime is not to exceed 60 hours a year and is supposed to be paid at double the normal pay scale. However, in a working environment in Burma, this is not happening.

Though management and workers agree Burma's labour laws should be made more flexible, a Ministry of Labour spokesman said there were no plans to update or adjust the laws at present. None of the factories follow the law to the letter. Like in most developing countries, laws are just a suggestion.

Burma, since 2002, has allowed a liaison officer of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to be present in the country. ILO's mandate is restricted in Burma to intervening on issues of forced labour, child soldiers and the right to freedom of association. However, in other fast developing nations the organisation is working on issues like industrial relations but not so in Burma.

Disputes with industrial relations are found outside its mandate in Burma. That might be one of the UN agency's double standards, that's why the military government is happy to set aside other UN urgings.

It is not unusual that the military government continues to enforce existing laws. Workers have poor protection, as they lack knowledge about their legal rights.

"The workers usually do not know their labour rights. So, the factory owners neglect labour laws and the employers put the workers in a trap to make them do what they want to," said a Rangoon-based senior journalist.

The journalist said most reports by workers lodged to the labour authority did not get a proper response. For example, most workers are denied their earned-leaves, despite their complaints to the authority.

However, he said, a few companies observed labour laws especially in regards to compensation, if and when an employee is injured or forced to quit.

"A few companies provide compensation of three to six months salary to an employee who is forced to resign," he said.

With the existing labour laws, the amount of time that exceeds the normal 8-working hours in a day or 44-hours a week, is calculated at twice the basic pay. These rights are guaranteed under the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1923 and the Leave and Holiday Act 1951. However, the laws and the actual workplace condition in reality have no relation with each other in Burma.

Some observers said labour disputes are likely to rise under the present situation.

A new amendment to the 'Myanmar 1951 labour law' says that every employee who has completed a period of 12 months continuous service shall be granted earned leave with average wages or average pay for 10 consecutive days by his employers during the subsequent period of 12 months.

"Previously, workers from a few factories did not enjoy earned leave if they worked continuously for 12 months although the law existed," a committee member from Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone Management said.

According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Industry (1), as of the end of 2005, there are more than 340,000 workers, who are working in the industrial zones. In Burma, there are more than 42,000 factories, the majority of which are cottage industries and small and medium-sized factories.