notes and study aids on Myanmar language

Thursday 1 March 2012

History of Myanmar's labour movement (296/505)



This post presents page 296 (from the start of "Section 30" onwards) of The History of the Myanmar Labour Movement by Thakin Lwin (Bagan Books, 1968).



Vocabulary:

အမှတ်အသား ။ record
ပျမ်းမျှ ။ on average
ထက်ဝက် ။ half
ပဲ ။ anna, sixteenth part of a rupee or four pice (ပြား) (currency introduced during British colonial days)
ငါ့မင်းငါ့ချင်း ။ (adv) my ship, my order (fig).
သေကျေပျက်စီး ။ to perish
သိသာ ။ to be evident, obvious
လျော်ကြေး ။ compensation; indemnity
ရက်သတ္တပတ် ။ a week

Translation:

Section 30
1914-36 | The first period of worker struggles

In 1914, prior to the First World War, no evidence has been found that can serve as distinct records of the Myanmar labour movement. The life situation of thousands of workers working in offices and factories at that time can, however, be seen.

Although workers' average work time was from 9 to 12 hours a day, in some workplaces [workers] were made to work from 14 to 16 hours. And women workers and children workers had to work the same number of hours as other other adult workers but only got a half or a third of the wages. At that time one adult worker's average daily salary was at most 12 annas, a woman's was 6 annas and a child's was 4 annas, and the total for the whole month was only about 18 kyat. It is well known that since there was no legal protection for workers employers exploited [workers] and made them work as though thinking that [the workers] were their property.

Although the issue of [workers] at factories and offices incurring injuries and perishing was very obvious at that time, even the vocabulary of compensation for the losses of those workers was unheard of. There was no weekly day of work closure, day of rest from work or permitted day [off]. Even for the daily profit of Sunday or the Buddhist sabbath day and special religious days there was a system whereby [workers] would be paid if the work was open and [the workers] worked.

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