Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Chinese border town of Ruili is booming – party because of Burmese working women – but the jobs are often hazardous, low paying and Burmese workers have no legal rights, according to a report by the Thailand-based Burmese Women’s Union (BWU).
The report, “Forgotten Workforce,” is based on interviews with 32 Burmese women, including women in the sex industry. Other women are employed in low-paying jobs in construction and in factories without legal status, according to the report.“For example, in some factories women polish petrified wood and the air is contaminated with dust and particles. The workers should wear masks. The dust and gases can damage their health. Construction workers have encountered similar problems,” BWU General-Secretary Noe Noe Htet San told Mizzima. Most Chinese do not want to do such work, Burmese workers told interviewers.
“I have to sit on a hard chair and work all day, so my haunches are covered with calluses. It’s the same with all the workers,” the report quoted a female worker as saying. “The job exhausts us. And the atmosphere is contaminated. The Chinese don’t want to do this job. Some workers had X-rays and found that they have lung problems. When we polish the petrified wood, we inhale bad smells and chemicals and the chemicals cause nasal polyps and coughing.”
Burmese women in the sex industry are often forced to have unprotected sex and some have been sold as wives to Chinese men, the report said. Because of a lack of jobs in Burma, many women chose to work in Ruili to earn a regular income and to support their families, said Noe Noe Htet San.
The BWU survey found that there are more than 100,000 Burmese workers in Ruili, most with low salaries and no workers’ rights or health care.
“Chinese people will not work if they do not get a basic monthly salary, as much as US$ 1,000. But Burmese workers have to work at a salary of about US$ 200 to 300 per month. If there are accidents in the work place, most are not given compensation or health care,” Noe Noe Htet San said.
Mu Mu, an interpreter, told Mizzima that some Chinese employers in Ruili also look for ways to cheat Burmese out of their wages.
“There are many problems,” he said. “They pay monthly. When they pay, for instance, a worker should get, say, 600 but the employer just pays 400. The employers often keep the remaining 200 as the worker’s ‘deposit.’ The remaining 200 will be returned after six-month service or one-year service,” Mu Mu told Mizzima. “But they cheat in many ways. If a worker gives up the job before one-year’s service, they will not get the deposit money back. And if a worker resigns a job in a middle of a month, the worker will not get the salary for the month. The working hours are from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.”
Most Burmese workers do not have a work permit from the Chinese government, so they cannot complain to the authorities, and there are no workers’ rights organizations in the area, according to the report.
The BWU has urged the Chinese government and local authorities in Yunnan Province to pay Burmese workers fair wages, to provide work permits, suitable health care and to let Burmese organize workers’ organizations.
