SMART Myanmar and the project Social and Labour Standards in the Textile and Garment Sector in Asia (SLSG), implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, which works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) jointly organized a half-day seminar on labour laws most relevant for factories in Myanmar. Although initially aiming to host about 70 managers and staff, over 200 individuals attended to hear lawyers from Luther Law firm answer questions on existing labour laws in Myanmar.
“Attendance at the seminar far exceeded our expectations. I believe most factories are interested to comply with Myanmar’s existing labour laws, but it is often not simple. Sometimes laws are inconsistently applied and this can create immense confusion for factory managers. We hope today brought some added consistency and clarity.” said Mr. Jacob A. Clere, SMART Myanmar Team Leader.
SMART Myanmar is the largest not-for-profit technical training initiative in Myanmar’s industrial sector. Funded by the European Union and co-funded by the German government, the project has trained hundreds of managers and dozens of garment factories on various social and environmental topics. The legal seminar on Tuesday was designed to broaden the outreach of these efforts and engage a wider audience.
During Tuesday’s event SLSG sequa Project Manager, Ms. Su Tayar Lin presented the smartphone app Shwe Job - an app designed to educate workers in the Myanmar garment industry on labour laws and occupational safety & health in the factory. Since the app’s launch on May 1st Shwe Job has achieved over 3,300 downloads in the Google Play Store, an average of about 1,000 installs per month.
“We’re not promising a revolution, but I believe that by educating both workers and managers on the existing laws healthy industrial relations will be easier to achieve,” said Ms. Lin.
To download press releases in Myanmar and English please click below:
(English language) Press release, Labour laws training
(Myanmar language) Press release, Labour laws training
