Myanmar garment factory workers sit at the entrance of their factory during a workers’ protest for better wages at the Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial zone on the outskirts of Yangon early on June 2, 2012. PHOTO / AFP
Factory owners in the garment and commodities businesses may be considering layoffs to shoulder the apparently unbearable new minimum wage of just under $3 a day.
Eleven Media is citing reports that “some factories” are considering the move.
The nationwide wage for an eight-hour workday across all sectors and industries was set at K3,600 (between $2.80 and $3). It took effect on September 1.
Small businesses with fewer than 15 employees are exempt from the rule.
Myo Aung, permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Ministry of Labor, said officials are in talks with the factory owners to see what’s what.
But do you really need to talk to them to figure out what’s going on? If the threat is real, here’s one interpretation: they don’t want to pay the new wage and are threatening to cost the country jobs to fight it.
As a strategy for employers this is par for the course. But they might not have much leverage. Labor costs are on the rise everywhere and moving operations isn’t cheap.
Sorry factories, you just may have to part with those $3 a day to pay your workers.
