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The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in Myanmar's garment sector, leading to widespread job losses and income reductions. This study examines the impact on garment workers, particularly women, and their coping mechanisms during the crisis. It assesses the adequacy of social protection systems, including access to reproductive health services and emergency measures, and evaluates the effectiveness of international assistance, such as EU-funded cash transfers. The study also investigates how the pandemic intensified the unpaid care burden and risks of gender-based violence for women workers. Key findings include the severe employment and income losses experienced by garment workers, the inadequacy of existing social protection systems, and the critical role of international assistance in mitigating these losses. The study concludes that urgent reforms are needed to strengthen social protection systems and address the specific needs of female workers in Myanmar's garment sector.
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted Myanmar’s garment industry, a critical sector for employment, particularly among women. This paper examines the impact of the pandemic on garment workers in Myanmar by analyzing employment disruptions, income loss, gendered effects, and the role of social protection. Employing a mixed-methods approach, data were collected via phone interviews with 610 workers, 19 key informant interviews, and 4 focus group discussions across major industrial zones. Findings indicate a 26% decline in employment and a 23% drop in total wage bills between December 2019 and June 2020. Overtime hours were significantly reduced—by 59% in garment factories and 69% in footwear and bag factories. Women disproportionately shouldered domestic burdens, with over half reporting responsibility for cleaning and food preparations, compared to fewer than 10% of male spouses. Severance payments were inconsistently provided and often fell below legal thresholds, driving many into high-interest debt. Migrant workers faced additional barriers to access food and cash assistance. The pandemic exposed structural weaknesses in Myanmar’s labor protections and social safety nets. Key policy recommendations include enforcing labor laws on severance pay, expanding unemployment benefits, offering skills training, and improving GBV prevention and response mechanisms. These measures are essential to support garment workers’ well-being and facilitate equitable recovery.
7.1 Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed profound disruptions across global supply chains and economies, prompting individuals and communities to adopt various coping mechanisms in response to both health risks and economic shocks. In 2020, the global gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 3.4% compared to 2019 (World Bank, 2022). As crisis evolved, its economic effects varied across industries and regions, based on government’s response capacity. Industries dependent on physical interaction were among the most severely impacted. Preliminary estimates indicated a 3.9% decline in output for the service sector globally, followed by a 3.1% drop in manufacturing and 3.0% decline in agriculture. In the ASEAN region, where manufacturing and exports serve as critical economic drivers, the pandemic led to severe economic contractions and labor market instability (Maryla et al., 2020). Disruptions in raw material imports and declining international demand exposed this sector’s vulnerability, particularly in countries with limited institutional capacity to respond (International Labor Organization [ILO], 2020a).
In many developing countries, one of the most visibly impacted industries was the garment sector, which is deeply integrated into global value chains and employs a large female workforce. The sector employed more than 60 million people across the Asia Pacific region, approximately 35 million of whom were female (ILO, 2020a). With disruptions from both import and export sides of global trade, manufacturers closed factories, reduced workforces, and adjusted production in response to changing consumer demands and fashion trends. As a result, the garment workers suffered not only from mass layoffs and wage cuts but also prolonged instability as production systems adapted to new conditions.
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Against this background, Myanmar—a least-developed country in Southeast Asia with a history of violent conflict—experienced one of the most severe crises in its garment sector. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread job and income losses (ILO, 2021a), and these impacts were further compounded by the military coup in February 2021 (Head, 2021a, 2021b), plunging the country into a prolonged political and economic crisis. The already-weak social protection system fell short in safeguarding vulnerable workers at the height of the crisis, and the incoming military administration failed to address urgent health and welfare needs among the working population.
This dual crisis—of the pandemic and the coup—intensified employment disruptions in Myanmar more than in neighboring or comparable garment-dependent developing economies. Moreover, the compounded crisis exposed and widened pre-existing gaps in the social protection system, disproportionately increasing the burdens on women, who constitute nearly 90 percent of the garment industry workforce. These factors underscore why Myanmar is a critical case for studying the impact of COVID-19 on employment disruptions and gendered burdens. The severity of these challenges, coupled with the country’s fragile social protection infrastructure, makes Myanmar a stark example of compounded vulnerabilities in crisis—settings such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Myanmar, the garment industry is a key engine of foreign investment and employment in Myanmar, employed over 1.2 million workers before the pandemic, most of them women (ILOSTAT, 2022; Moe, 2022a, 2022b), is economically and socially important, as it provides many job opportunities and is made up of a majority of female workers. According to the 2019 Labour Force Survey, the textile, clothing, and footwear (TCF) sector accounts for more than 51% of total manufacturing employment (International Labour Organization [ILOSTAT], 2022). Women comprised 86% of workers in the sector, a striking contrast to the country’s overall female labor force participation rate of 46% for individuals aged 15 and older. Unlike neighboring countries with more mature social protection frameworks, Myanmar’s systems remain nascent and fragmented. However, the current complex crisis has become an important place to study the adequacy of weak social protection systems and the gendered impacts of employment.
The cut-make-pack (CMP) segment, comprising mainly of garment and footwear factories, attracted the majority of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the manufacturing sector. In Myanmar’s industrial zones, CMP factories comprise 73% of all FDI-funded establishments. The sector’s rapid growth was reflected in its export revenues, which rose from $1.2 billion in 2013—the year when EU lifted its sanctions and restored everything-but-arms trade preference to Myanmar—to $4.6 billion in 2018 (Moe, 2022a, 2022b).
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Prior to the pandemic, garment workers in Myanmar benefited from comparatively higher levels of social protection, primarily through employee and worker contribution to the Union Social Security Board (SSB). Many employers—particularly foreign firms and joint ventures—enrolled workers after their probation period, contributing 3% of monthly salaries, while workers’ pay 2%. By 2017, as many as 73% of workers in the garment industry held a valid social security card (Bernhardt et al., 2017; Pyne, 2016), a figure far exceeding the national average, as total SSB membership covered only 1.4 million people or less than 3% of the population.
The COVID-19 pandemic quickly eroded employment security, growth opportunity, and social protection enjoyed by garment workers. From 2020, the garment industry in Myanmar experienced workforce reductions exceeding 10% between April and July 2020 (ILO, 2021a),1 driven by disruptions in the import of materials from China and subsequently a sudden drop of demand from Europe. In response, factories reduced working hours, suspended overtime, and furloughed workers into part-time roles.
This paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on garment workers in Myanmar, particularly women, and how they coped in terms of employment and income loss during the pandemic. It also assesses the adequacy of social protection systems, including access to reproductive health services and emergency public health measures such as quarantine protocols. Particular attention is given to the cash assistance provided by the European Union and its effects on workers’ coping strategies and job-search capabilities amid the sudden economic crisis at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and subsequent political crisis after the military coup in 20212 (Head, 2021a, 2021b). Finally, the study explores how the pandemic influenced women’s unpaid care burden and exposure to gender-based violence during lockdowns.
Myanmar is a compelling but understudied case for examining the intersection of gender, labor shocks, and social protection. The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the convening of general elections in 2020 and its subsequent disputes and contestations leading the military coup in 2021. The political environment complicated not only the recovery of garment industries but also the access of garment workers to public services of social protection. On the other hand, the decision of the European Union in extending cash assistance to the garment workers was a lifeline for their coping strategies under compounding crises in Myanmar.
This paper examines how garment workers in Myanmar, particularly women, coped with employment and income losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It assesses the adequacy of social protection systems—including access to reproductive health services and emergency measures such as quarantine protocols—and evaluates the effectiveness of international assistance, particularly EU-funded cash transfers. It also investigates how the pandemic intensified the unpaid care burden and risks of gender-based violence for women workers. It also intends to offer new insights to the role of external assistance and cash transfer for vulnerable workers in times of crises. Lastly, this study contributes to the literature on gender and labor by focusing on an under-researched setting where health, economic, and political shocks converged, posing unique challenges to recovery.
7.1.1 Research Objectives and Questions
This paper examines the multifaceted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Myanmar’s garment sector, with a particular focus on women’s experiences. It seeks to understand how women workers navigated employment and income loss, and how existing support mechanisms, both domestic and international, shaped their coping strategies. In doing so, the study addresses the following research questions:
1.
How did women garment workers in Myanmar cope with employment and income losses during the COVID-19 pandemic?
2.
To what extent were existing social protection systems and international assistance, such as EU-funded cash transfers, effective in mitigating these losses?
3.
How did the pandemic effect women’s unpaid care responsibilities and their risk of gender-based violence during periods of lockdown and economic distress?
By grounding these questions in Myanmar’s distinct socio-political and economic context, the paper contributes to the growing literature on gender, labor, and crisis resilience. It provides new empirical evidence from a setting where multiple shocks converged, including public health, economic instability, and political upheaval, creating complex environment that tests the limits of both state and non-state responses.
7.2 Literature Review: Key Impact Channels of COVID-19 on Garment Workers
The garment sector in Southeast Asia is an important industry for income and employment, particularly for women working in both formal and informal settings. The sector accounted for 3.7% of total employment in the region, and the majority of garment workers are women. In Cambodia, one in five women in employment worked in the garment sector, compared to one in nine women in Bangladesh and Myanmar (ILO, 2021b). The sector also contributed significantly to national exports, accounting for up to 80% of total country exports in Bangladesh and 30% in Cambodia (Teodoro & Rodrigues, 2020).
As the COVID-19 pandemic began, initial disruptions in material imports from China were followed by retail closures, particularly in European and American markets. Subsequently, the global brands began to cancel their orders invoking ‘force majeure’ clauses.3 National COVID-19 containment measures—including mandatory factory shutdowns and movement restrictions—further worsened the situation. The disruption extended to port and customs operations, severely affecting the flow of inputs and outputs.
By mid-2020, Myanmar had shut down 44 garment factories and 22,000 workers had been dismissed (ILO, 2020a). Similar losses were recorded in Cambodia, where more than 150,000 or 15% of the country’s garment workers were reported to have lost their jobs, and in Vietnam 80% of supplier’s laid-off workers. Factories that had remained operational began to reduce production capacity and cut or delayed wage payments. According to Clean Clothes Campaign (2020), the estimated wage for 13 million workers (including Myanmar and Cambodia) across six countries amounted to US$ 3.1 billion.
Women have been disproportionately affected. Many garment workers, particularly married women, took on the role of unpaid domestic and caregiving responsibilities due to the school closures and gender division of labor (CARE, 2020). Health, nutrition, and safety needs of female workers were also affected during the pandemic. Women elsewhere reported eating less food to cope with reduced income. Pregnant workers were frequently dismissed and denied maternity benefits (Garment Worker Diaries, 2020). Lockdowns also increased the incidences of gender-based violence, while workers’ access to support services became severely limited due to quarantines and office closures (UN Women, 2020).
Most Southeast Asian countries lacked employment insurance systems. Oxfam (2020) advocated the urgent need for social protection during the pandemic, which left millions of workers exposed to income insecurity during the crisis. Although a few countries introduced emergency cash assistance measures, it was limited in coverage and duration, and many governments lacked enforcement of the mandatory severance pay for the dismissed workers from fast fashion factories (Worker Rights Consortium, 2021). Moreover, many informal and subcontracted workers—who form a large part of the sector—received no social protection at all.
The COVID-19 pandemic also undermined labor rights and weakened collective bargaining at both the factory and sectoral levels, as social dialogue between the employers and the workers as well as tri-partite consultations with the government had stalled under the weight of the pandemic. In countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, minimum wage reviews were postponed, while public health measures limited not only regular union activities but also the ability to organize strikes. Union members were disproportionately targeted for layoffs. The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (2020) documented three cases in Myanmar and two cases in Cambodia.
These experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that female garment workers faced serious socioeconomic challenges that continue to affect their employment and livelihood despite the crisis now passing. However, the degree of social resilience differs greatly from one country to another, influenced by varying aspects of production practices, social protection mechanisms, and most important of all, public policies toward the garment industry.
In the case of Myanmar, the effects of COVID-19 were compounded by the political crises as well as a weak social protection system. Temporary job losses at the beginning of the pandemic became permanent as more factories closed and brands like H&M and Primark canceled orders or suspended operations after the military coup. The ILO (2021b) reported a 26% workforce reduction in 2020, a trend exacerbated by the 2021 military coup, with one in three factories at risk of closure in 2021, according to the CSIS (2022).
When factory owners abandoned workers without pay, with ActionAid (2020) documenting over 300 workers left unpaid since January 2020, the incoming military government did not take actions against the employers. In many ways, individual garment workers adopted various survival strategies to cope with income losses from reduced hours and overtime. The ILO (2021a) noted reliance on personal savings and informal support networks, while the UNDP (2022) observed workers, especially women, skipping meals and sacrificing basic needs to send remittances home.
Even after the coup, the government of Myanmar continued providing 40% salary support during factory shutdowns, as noted by the ILO (2021c) and ActionAid (2020), but coverage was inconsistent, leaving informal and migrant workers, especially single and pregnant women, vulnerable. The CSIS pointed to the EU’s cash transfer program was critical in alleviating the income losses of the workers, but the kyat’s value drop reduced purchasing power, and many remained unreachable under the program. The UNDP underscored that most workers earned below subsistence levels (less than USD 100/month), with minimal access to formal safety nets, compounding their precarious situation.
Amid all these challenges, female garment workers faced disproportionate challenges. UNDP (2022) reported long hours (12 + hours/day), lack of contracts, and no healthcare, intensifying stress and insecurity for female workers. ActionAid (2020) highlighted increased gender-based violence during lockdowns, with women trapped at home with abusive partners, while the ILO (2021a) noted some turned to extreme measures like sex work due to joblessness. While all these reports on Myanmar provide valuable overviews of garment sector vulnerabilities, less attention is given to how workers navigated job loss through informal support systems or community-based networks—an area this study seeks to explore.
7.3 Research Methodology
The study employed a mixed-method design to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Myanmar garment workers, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative research components. Quantitative data were collected through a structured phone survey using Kobo Toolbox4 between September and December 2020. Qualitative data were gathered through key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) from July 2020 to January 2021. A planned multi-stakeholder consultation, which included government representatives, was suspended due to widespread conflict following the military takeover in February 2021.
7.3.1 Quantitative Approach
The survey was conducted in the Yangon Region and four other major industrial areas, Mandalay, Bago, Ayeyarwady, and Magway. Additional interviews were conducted in regions including Karen State, Nay Pyi Taw, and Sagaing where textile and yarn production facilities are located.
Figure 7.1 A two-stage stratified sampling strategy was adopted to ensure representative coverage across subsectors and locations.
In the first stage, the Myan Ku database,5 a registry of approximately 300 factories and 30,000 workers eligible for support like social assistance program under the European Union, served as the sampling frame. From this population, 880 workers were stratified and randomly selected based on gender and factory location. The subsectors representation included garment, footwear, bags, and textile manufacturing (e.g., ginning and spinning).
In the second stage, phone interviews were conducted with selected participants. A total of 610 respondents were interviewed by the end of 2020. Interviews were primarily conducted on Sunday to accommodate workers’ overtime schedules. The survey instrument contained 10 major sections, mostly composed of close-ended questions. A few open-ended questions explored perceptions of personal and sectoral recovery. The instrument was pre-tested twice to ensure timing accuracy and respondent comprehension.
Data collection was carried out by six trained enumerators working in coordination with four in-house research assistants, all of whom have prior experience surveying garment sector workers. Two research associates supervised the process and performed daily quality control checks on submitted data, with particular attention to the completeness of open-ended responses. Additional wage and employment information were obtained through interviews with factory managers.
7.3.2 Qualitative Approach
Due to COVID-19 restrictions and limited access to participants, convenience and snowball sampling methods were used to identify respondents for the qualitative component. These methods facilitated the inclusion of participants across different subsectors and locations, based on their experiences and availability.
The qualitative component included 19 key informant interviews with factory owners and managers across garment, footwear and textile sectors, located in Yangon, Mandalay and Bago. Interview questions were semi-structured and shared in advance to allow participants in adequate preparations. An additional FGD was conducted with spinning factory employers in Mandalay.
Three FGDs were conducted with garment workers one was held in Yangon with currently employed workers, another in Pathein with recently laid-off workers, and a third was conducted online with a trade union representative. The aim was to explore experiences related to social dialogue, employment conditions, and freedom of association.
7.3.3 Data Analysis
Quantitative data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and summary tables were used to examine employment and income trends household responsibilities, gender-based violence, and borrowing patterns during the pandemic. Results are presented in the form of tables, charts, and graphs. A thematic analysis approach was used to interpret qualitative data, which are coded with clearly guided keywords. Transcripts and field notes from KIIs and FGDs were analyzed to identify patterns and recurring themes. These themes were used to contextualize the survey findings and highlight key areas of concern raised by participants.
7.4 Key Research Findings and Discussion
Section 4 presents findings from our field survey with garment workers in Myanmar, shedding light on how the twin crises of COVID-19 and the 2021 military coup disrupted employment, livelihoods, and well-being. The findings show urgent priorities for garment workers such as job loss, coping mechanisms, access to social protection, and gendered burdens, while also drawing attention to underlying structural vulnerabilities in the labor market.
From the findings, the most immediate and widespread impact was massive job and income loss across the garment sector. Nearly all respondents experienced factory closures, temporary suspensions, or reduced working hours. These disruptions were exacerbated by the collapse of export orders, pandemic-related restrictions, and ongoing political instability. The situation pushed many workers—primarily women—into informal, low-paying alternatives, revealing the absence of employment security in Myanmar’s largely unregulated labor market.
To survive these shocks, workers adopted a range of coping strategies. These included reducing food consumption, borrowing from informal lenders, returning to rural hometowns, and taking on domestic or piece-rate work. Critically, many expressed a belief that obedience, non-complaint behavior, and increased productivity were essential to retaining employment—a reflection of entrenched employer-worker power imbalances and the absence of enforceable labor protections. The findings suggest that negativity and fear of job insecurity may result in poor motivation and low productivity of workforce.
As most garment workers are women in Myanmar, the respondents reveal how women’s unpaid labor—caring for children, sick family members, or handling food insecurity—intensified during factory closures. Male counterparts were more likely to seek external income, whereas women were more tied to the household. While the government introduced emergency relief programs, these were poorly targeted and inconsistently delivered. Female workers were frequently denied from specific needs with their reproductive health from both employers and public services.
When asked about preferred support, most workers emphasized immediate survival needs: food, cash, and low-interest loans. In this regard, cash assistance programs sponsored by EU’s Myan Ku program filled the urgent needs of the workers. However, fewer respondents discussed structural issues such as labor protection or job security, highlighting the need for integrated decent work and social protection programs. The details of the findings are discussed in the following sub-sections.
7.4.1 Employment and Income Impacts
The result found a sharp employment decline of 26% compared to the pre-COVID period. The first wave of the pandemic, during the first half of 2020, had a more severe impact on employment than the subsequent waves. Specifically, employment declined by 22% in first half of 2020, followed by a smaller dip of 4% in second half (Fig. 7.2).
Further analysis revealed that factory size played an important role in workforce reductions.6 The smaller factories with less than 300 workers experienced the highest level of workforce reduction (41%), while medium-sized and large factories experienced 28% and 16%, respectively (Fig. 7.3).
There was an interesting pattern of recovery for very large factories (more than 1,000 workers) 2020. Very large factories, typically foreign owned or joint ventures, demonstrated much more resilience and began rehiring in the second half of 2020. On the other hand, smaller firms remained extremely vulnerable and did not really show signs of recovery at all in 2020.
Workforce reductions were also influenced by market orientation.7 The factories that produced mainly for local markets seemed to be more affected. These factories experienced declines of more than 50% of their workforce by the end of 2020 (Fig. 7.4). It suggests that local firms are more vulnerable to shocks while the factories that are exporting their products to various international markets, irrespective of destinations, are much more resilient.
Fig. 7.4
Workforce reduction by type of market destination.
The paper also explored the pattern of wage trends. As shown in Fig. 7.5, factory-level data showed a 23% reduction in total wage bills from December 2019 to June 2020, while the average wage per worker decreased by 8%. The findings suggest that factories sought a coping strategy to maintain productivity by retaining more experienced and skilled workers to maintain the factory’s productivity, even as overall employment was reduced. The in-depth interviews with factory’s human resource managers confirmed this strategy, emphasizing layoffs among the recently-employed or less-experienced employees.
Fig. 7.5
Changes in factories’ wage bill and average worker's salary.
Workers also reported income losses. As shown in Fig. 7.6, the average take-home salaries (including wages, overtime and bonuses) decreased by 14% in garment factories compared to 16% in the footwear and bag factories between January and August 2020. From the interviews with the workers, the main cause was a reduction in overtime. According to Myanmar labor laws, overtime payment rate is twice the amount of normal working hour rate. The average reduction of overtime hours in garment factories was 59%, while the footwear and bag factories reduced up to 69% (Fig. 7.7). Factory managers cited both cost-cutting strategies and COVID-related transport restrictions as reasons for reduced overtime.
7.4.2 Changing Patterns of Household Responsibilities
Gendered impacts extended into the household. One of the key reasons for emerging challenges of gender imbalance in household responsibilities was accommodation. In many industry zones in major urban centers, such as Yangon where the majority of the country’s garment factories are located, there is a severe lack of affordable housing for the workers. Most garment workers share accommodation with 4–5 other family members or roommates. These situations intensify the burden of household responsibilities, particularly the unpaid care and household chores for women.
Globally, women bear three times more household responsibilities than men, a trend echoed in this study’s results. More than 50% of women completed the households cleaning and food preparations while less than 10% of their male spouse took care of similar household responsibilities. For single women, they also tended to complete more domestic work more than their parents in the household. In extended families, women and parents contributed more to the labor than husbands (Fig. 7.8).
When comparing household responsibilities before and during the pandemic, respondents reported increases in nearly all areas with the only exception being participating in social functions (Fig. 7.9). This is attributed to COVID-19 prevention measures, restrictions of events, social distancing measures, and lockdowns. Such reduced community engagement is worrying—especially for women—because it kept women in isolation from social networking.
Fig. 7.9
Household tasks during pandemic compared to pre-COVID times, prior to 2020.
When surveyed about their experience with gender-based violence (GBV) and discrimination at work, 85% of respondents reported no personal experiences (Fig. 7.10). Among the 15% who did, verbal abuse, and cyberbullying, were the most cited. Reports of sexual harassments (3%) and physical harm (1%) were rare.
Of those who experienced GBV, 61% of respondents said that the perpetrators were strangers, while 24% identified supervisors and employers. Given a small percentage of sexual harassment reported, it is likely that such incidents were underreported.
Notably, none of the respondents who experienced GBV sought recourse from employers or the authorities. Instead, they relied on informal support networks such as friends and families to cope with the consequences of such incidents.
7.4.4 Coping Processes
Severance pay provided a critical safety net for the workers who were dismissed by the factories. According to the workers’ survey, 73% of dismissed workers from garment factories and 83% from footwear/bag factories received severance pay, respectively. Conversely, in spinning and ginning factories, only 33% and 2% of workers, respectively, received severance pay. Many workers in spinning and ginning factories were unregistered, informal workers without employment contracts or other legal documents ensuring employer compliance with severance payment obligations. Alarmingly, many employers in garment and footwear/bag factories also ignored strict labor laws requiring severance payments for registered workers.
Severance pay was critical for allowing workers to stay in industrial zones to wait for reemployment or seek alternative income. According to the government’s labor regulations, the minimum amount of severance payment is equivalent to one and a half months’ salary, enabling most workers to survive and search for jobs for approximately three more months.
The amount of severance pay was an important factor for workers’ coping processes after dismissal. Although the labor regulations stipulated specific severance amounts based on the duration of employment, most employers did not comply. Table 7.1 provides a detailed comparison of the severance amounts that surveyed workers actually received from their employers versus the amount stipulated by law.
Table 7.1
Discrepancy between actual severance payment and the rate stipulated in the law
Working Experience
Severance Amount
Last Salary
Month(s) of
compensation received
Month(s) of compensation stipulated in law
Six months to one year
181,075
183,811
1.0
0.5
Above one year to two years
233,278
195,942
1.2
1.0
Above two years to three years
261,571
174,601
1.5
1.5
Above three years
278,333
176,624
1.6
3.0
Source Survey data and Social Security Law from RUM (2012)
Table 7.2
Type of accommodation used by workers
Owned premises
Rental properties
Hostels/ shared rooms
Factory-provided hostels
Living with relatives/ friends
Other
Ayeyarwady
76%
4%
18%
0%
1%
1%
Yangon
33%
23%
38%
2%
3%
1%
Mandalay
77%
8%
1%
3%
7%
4%
Other States/regions
85%
6%
0%
4%
4%
1%
Source Authors’ phone survey in December 2020
In any case, severance pay was often sufficient. The average severance amount for all dismissed workers, regardless of employment duration, was approximately 150,000 MMK (equivalent to $116 at the time of the survey), which was less than one month’s take-home income for most workers. The survey also found that factories provided severance pay that exceeded legal requirements for newly recruited workers and those with less than two years of employment duration in the factory. For example, these workers received a one-month salary and a 1.2-month salary, respectively—despite the legal amount being 0.5 and one-month salary rate (Table 7.1). In contrast, the more experienced workers with over three years of employment received only 1.6 months’ salary—far below the three months stipulated by law.
Although many workers did not understand why they received higher or lower severance amounts, one experienced worker suggested that employers preferred to provide more generous severance to newer workers while paying longer-term employees less. This strategy may have aimed to pacify the larger number of recently hired workers affected by workforce reductions. Emergency food supplies and informal group support mechanisms among dismissed workers were also noted.
When respondents were asked how they spent their severance pay, most reported food (75%), accommodation (41%), and remittances (24%) as their main expenses (Fig. 7.11). The fact that most respondents spent their severance pay on food and accommodation suggests that the amounts received barely covered their basic needs. Despite of COVID-19 pandemic, few respondents spent much on healthcare needs. Some (16%) reported using severance to repay bank loans, which indicates that the workers wanted to maintain good relationships with the lenders in order to access future credit. Another 16% spent their severance on travel to return to their hometowns, reflecting the economic hardship faces by dismissed urban workers.
Due to significant wage reductions and limited severance pay, half of worker respondents reported borrowing money during the pandemic. Although dismissed workers were more likely to borrow, both employed and unemployed workers took loans. Among borrowers, the majority were married (61%), indicating a higher degree of financial responsibility (Fig. 7.12).
When respondents were asked about their pre-pandemic debt, 87% of the workers reported having outstanding debt that they were repaying. Although many of them tried not to take new loans during the pandemic, about 50% had no choice. Combined debts ranged from 50,000 MMK ($39), which is less than half of one-month salary, to more than 250,000 MMK (above US$193). Alarmingly, many loans had extremely high-interest rates—around 10.5% per month—compared to bank rates of 0.83% or microfinance institution rates of 2.5%. Due to a lack of collateral, workers relied on informal lenders. The largest group of borrowers fell into the highest debt range, raising concerns about debt sustainability (Fig. 7.13).
When respondents were asked about loan usage, their answers mirrored severance pay spending: food (82%), accommodation (31%), health-related expenses (21%), purchasing assets (5%), and remittances (5%) (Fig. 7.14). The fact that respondents needed to borrow money to meet their basic needs such as buying food, illustrates the dire situation they are in. At the same time, the respondents also used more of their loans for health-related needs. During the interviews, the workers explained that they had to seek emergency loans when they got sick with COVID-19 as they needed money to seek medical treatment and to stay in quarantine. In this regard, the workers who contracted COVID-19 ended up in debt due to out-of-pocket hospital expenses.
After food security, the most consistent needs were housing Urban workers, particularly in Yangon, faced high rental costs—averaging 65,512 MMK ($48) per month for a house or apartment, or 48,187 MMK ($37) for hostels. In contrast, Ayeyarwady workers paid the least (around $30 for houses). Less than 5% of workers lived in factory-provided accommodation (Table 7.2).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, workers in Yangon also faced challenges in rent payment because of the temporary factory closures and the government’s stay-at-home orders, which left them without income. This finding was consistent with other responses that suggested almost a third (31%) of the respondents who borrowed loans and almost a quarter (41%) of those who received severance spent them on accommodation costs. Due to much stricter travel restrictions and lockdown measures in Yangon, the dismissed workers were unable to return to their hometowns and could not find a new job to maintain the cost of living.
7.4.5 Protection Processes
Under the Social Security Law (2012), registered workers were eligible for social protection benefits. As of July 2020, 1.3 million workers were registered with the Social Security Board (SSB). Although SSB had no developed unemployment scheme, it expanded benefits during COVID-19 as workers had contributed to the social security fund. The benefits included compensation during lockdowns and extended health insurance coverage for up to six months post-termination.
During the first and second waves, SSB compensated eligible workers who (1) were barred from working due to stay-at-home orders and (2) contributed to the scheme through June 2020. Compensation was set at 40%of daily wages for missed workdays. As of November 2020, 5,463 factories received these benefits. Additional benefits for the unemployed workers included free medical treatment for 6 months. Dismissed workers were exempted from future contributions for 36 months. For the workers who became infected with the virus, the SSB supported them during their quarantine stay in the government centers. These workers were eligible to receive 60%of their wages for up to 28 days of quarantine. However, the survey found that only 30% of workers with SSB cards utilized these benefits, citing barriers such as complicated procedures, fear of COVID-19 exposure at offices, and long waiting times (outlined in Figs. 7.15 and 7.16). Therefore, greater efforts to digitalize services and minimize in-person interactions are necessary, and digital literacy has become an important factor in the various responses toward COVID-19.
Given the important role played by the SSB in providing critical social protection, the survey also questioned the preference of workers in supporting the future mission of SSB. Encouragingly, most workers supported expanding SSB coverage: 65% of footwear/bag workers and 73% of garment workers said they would pay an additional 1% of salary to receive half-salary unemployment benefits. Interestingly, workers outside Yangon such as Bago, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady regions, were less willing. A possible reason behind this is that they did not receive any monetary compensation during the COVID-19 crisis.
Gender differences also emerged. Interestingly, there were more male workers (40%) who visited SSB clinics, compared to female workers (27%). On the other hand, more female workers (46%) visited private clinics or hospital between 1 and 3 times during the pandemic, compared to their male counterparts (35%). From the interviews, female workers stated that the SSB clinics were not equipped with reproductive health services or obstetrics and gynecological specialists to provide specific services they needed.
Among important social protection and health care needs for female workers, support services relating to pregnancy and maternity were critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results showed that 28% of married female workers and 31% of single female workers were aware of the maternity benefits. Despite these gaps, most rights of pregnant workers and maternity leave were sustained during the pandemic. SSB introduced a new initiative offering pregnant workers 60% of wages as a cash benefit (Fig. 7.17).
7.4.6 Support Processes
During the first and second waves of COVID-19, the Government of Myanmar distributed basic food (oil, rice, onions) and cash support (20,000 MMK per disbursement) to vulnerable communities nationwide who lacked regular livelihood and monthly income. However, there were many complaints about these support programs. Some individuals did not receive the distributed food or cash support, and many faced difficulties with the application process because the government channeled distribution through township and ward/village administrators. Eligibility often depended on the criteria set by the local administrators,8 and only those registered with the local administration were eligible to receive the government’s support. In some townships, applicants had to stand in long-crowded queues to submit application forms. Garment workers, who were mostly migrant populations registered in their hometowns and villages, were typically ineligible for assistance programs administered in the cities and industrial zones.
When asked about the types of government support programs they preferred, more than 50% of respondents—regardless of their employment status—indicated a preference for food and basic needs assistance (Table 7.3). Among unemployed respondents, the highest priority was job search support, reflecting their urgent need for regular income. This demonstrates a high level of frustration among the workers in finding alternative employment during the pandemic.
Table 7.3
Types of Government support programs preferred by the workers (percentage of responses)
Currently employed
Recently dismissed and changed job in a new sector
Still unemployed
Support to factories to sustain
operations
14.86
20
10.86
Job search support
13.51
25.71
60.63
Basic needs support (mainly food)
59.46
51.43
53.85
Basic healthcare support
13.51
11.43
7.24
Low-cost accommodation support
18.92
28.57
4.52
Low interest loan
6.76
2.86
8.14
Skill training incentives
2.7
2.86
1.36
Cash support
27.03
20
25.34
Other
4.05
0
0.9
Source Authors’ phone survey in December 2020
Among employed respondents, basic healthcare support was a priority in comparison with unemployed workers, reflecting the need to maintain good health to sustain employment. A significant proportion of respondents who had found new jobs (29%) and those still employed in their previous job (19%) also prioritized low-cost accommodation support, reflecting the ongoing challenges of finding affordable housing suitable for their work schedules. Respondents also preferred cash support over other types of financial assistance such as subsidized loans or skill training incentives.
When respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement “the government has done a good job in protecting your livelihood during the COVID-19 crisis,” workers were divided, however the overall view leaned positive. Over a third of the employed respondents (38%) were neutral, while another third (35%) agreed, and 21% disagreed.
Interestingly, when asked about the government’s decision to close factories, 35% of respondents thought that it was wrong, 29% believed that it was right, while 29% were neutral. This showed that workers were divided over the government’s public health measures. However, when asked whether the government should introduce stricter social distancing rules for workers, more than half (52%) agreed. A similar pattern was seen when the respondents were asked about introducing stricter COVID-19 measures in workplaces. Very few respondents strongly opposed tougher measures.
Overall, these findings suggest that while workers were critical of certain aspects of government action, they were fully aware of the need for more stringent measures and expected the Government of Myanmar to enforce them in factories.
As many workers shared their fears of future job loss, the survey also explored what actions those still employed—or recently re-employed in a new sector—might take to protection their employment (Table 7.4). Among both groups, a large proportion indicated that greater obedience to employer or supervisor instructions would help them avoid termination (39% among employed workers and 31% among re-employed workers). This suggests a strong belief that obedience was critical for job security.
Table 7.4
Self-help measures among workers to hedge against job losses (percentage of responses)
Still employed
Recently dismissed but changed job in a new sector
Increase employability (upgrade skills)
7.5
15
Join a labor union
1
0
Obedient to employer/supervisors
38.5
31
Work hard to improve productivity
41.5
28
Other measures
9
5
Nothing, not under my control
36.5
43
Source Authors’ phone survey in December 2020
Similarly, many workers responded that improved productivity and performance by working harder could help them keep their jobs. Moreover, it was evident that many respondents showed very little confidence in the role of trade unions in protecting their jobs. Alarmingly, a significant share of respondents expressed fatalistic views, believing that keeping their jobs was beyond their control (37% of employed workers and 43% of re-employed workers).
These perceptions demonstrate the fragile state of the labor market and workers faith in external mechanisms to secure their livelihoods. Overall, these findings indicate the significant impact which COVID-19 has had on workers’ well-being, job security strategies, and perceptions of available support processes.
7.5 Conclusion
This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on workers in Myanmar’s textile and garment industry, with a focus on coping mechanisms, protection measures, and support processes during the crisis. COVID-19 has severely threatened the sustainability of textile and garment industry operations and caused factory closures and business failures beyond repair. Furthermore, it has had a significant impact on the socioeconomic conditions of workers’ families and their communities, directly and indirectly.
The survey findings underscore the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the military takeover on Myanmar’s garment workers, exposing deep-seated structural vulnerabilities in labor protection, gender equity, and economic governance. Women—who comprise nearly 90% of the sector—were disproportionately affected due to their concentration in precarious, low-paid jobs and their burden of unpaid domestic responsibilities during periods of factory closure. These vulnerabilities were intensified by weak social protection, inadequate relief distributions, and a policy environment ill-equipped to address the realities of migrant and informal labor.
Despite widespread job and income losses, workers displayed remarkable resilience—adjusting through obedience, productivity gains, and informal work, though often at the expense of dignity, rights, and well-being. These coping strategies reveal not just individual endurance, but also the absence of institutional safeguards and collective bargaining platforms. Government social protection programs as well as international emergency assistance, while a lifeline to many workers who lost the jobs, failed to reach many due to documentation barriers and institutional weaknesses—particularly for migrant female workers.
The findings also indicate that small and medium-sized factories, and the workers employed in them, experienced significant disruptions from demand collapse and massive unemployment, a trend expected to persist. In contrast, large and extra-large factories were able to slow downward spiral due to closer partnerships with committed buyers and suppliers. The role of trade unions in protecting and supporting workers’ rights and needs was found to be negligible during the crisis—an imperative of healthy industry relations to cope with systemic risks.
Employment sustainability during the pandemic was closely linked to workers’ skills, experience, and productivity, underscoring the need for targeted capacity initiatives. This study also found that a dominant strategy among employers and factories was to retain a smaller, experienced workforce rather than reduce the salaries for existing employees. It is also important for the government to develop specific conditions for emergency loans to the industry, incentivizing productivity-boosting recovery strategies and job-retention requirements.
Moreover, female garment and textile workers were predominantly confined to employment within their sector, with limited opportunities for transition to alternative industries. This made them highly vulnerable when they lost their jobs. Even when some unemployed workers returned to their hometowns, they faced very limited prospects of livelihood, as agriculture production and non-farm activities had shifted in favor of male workers. In this regard, continued employment in textile and garment industries is critical to the livelihoods and survival of female workers during the crisis.
Women’s pre-existing concentration in the garment sector, which demonstrated relative resilience during the pandemic, positioned them as primary contributors to household incomes. Consequently, women in these sectors were more likely than their husbands or male relatives to contribute to the needs of their dependent families. However, female workers faced many challenges in terms of social protection, as many of the government’s healthcare and support programs did not mainstream their specific needs regarding reproductive health and maternity provisions. Furthermore, the government’s social security program lacked any measures for unemployment support. Accordingly, urgent reforms are required to adapt Myanmar’s social security system to better address the lifecycle risks and responsibilities of female workers. This would include:
Expanding social security coverage: Introduce unemployment benefits specifically for garment workers to provide income support during job loss and reduce financial dependence on high-interest loans.
Integrating reproductive health and maternity benefits: Ensure that social security programs offer accessible reproductive health services, maternity benefits, and flexible options tailored to women’s lifecycle needs, especially for those balancing work with family responsibilities.
Ensuring gender-responsive support programs: Mainstream gender-specific programs within all government healthcare and support programs, ensuring equitable access to benefits that meet the needs of female workers and strengthen their economic stability.
Supporting SME programs: Offer financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the garment sector to support their recovery, particularly in terms of re-employment. This can include tax relief, subsidies, or access to low-interest credit.
Implementing these reforms would strengthen the resilience of Myanmar’s garment sector and promote greater social equity by addressing the critical support gaps for women workers. Ultimately, the future of Myanmar’s garment sector cannot rest on a return to pre-crisis norms. Building back better means recognizing the essential role of garment workers in economic recovery, embedding gender equity into policy design, and strengthening social institutions that protect the most vulnerable. A truly inclusive recovery must ensure that the voices of workers—especially women—are not only heard but structurally empowered in shaping the road ahead.
7.6 Limitations of the Study
This study is subject to several limitations that should be considered when interpreting the findings. Since conducting a traditional survey based on random sampling of factories and workers was not possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study utilized the comprehensive database of the Myan Ku program, which contained data from as many as 300 factories and 30,000 workers, representing approximately 50% of total operating factories and 10% of the total worker population. Although the database provided a fairly representative subset of the population the study sought to investigate, it had a few weaknesses.
7.6.1 Selection Bias
The survey relied on the database, which included only factories and workers who were experiencing distress under the pandemic, while neither factories still operating at full capacity nor workers who were informally employed were included. This selection bias may have skewed the sample toward more accessible or networked workers, underrepresenting more isolated or unregistered garment workers particularly in the pandemic context. To some extent, the study addressed this selection bias by conducting qualitative interviews with the firms outside of the database; however, the possible exclusion of the hard-to-reach and vulnerable worker groups remains a major limitation of the study. As the objective of the research study was to understand the state of social protection and safety net mechanisms for all garment workers, this endeavor should be addressed in the future studies.
7.6.2 Temporal Constraints
The database set a cutoff date in August 2020, which excluded firms and workers who experienced disruptions and distress in the latter half of 2020. It is generally known that some firms became insolvent after fulfilling old orders but received no new orders in the second half of 2020. Data were collected during a period of heightened political instability and pandemic-related disruptions, meaning that responses likely reflect acute crisis conditions rather than long-term adjustments.
7.6.3 Methodological Challenges
Since the study relied on phone interviews to collect quantitative data, it was quite challenging to secure an adequate pool of interviewees within a short period; thus, prolonging the survey period to several months. Although the original aim was to collect data from over 800 samples, the study was only able to collect responses from 610 workers. Unlike face-to-face interviews, securing full response from workers through phone interviews presented an additional hurdle. High respondent stress, connectivity issues, and safety concerns during phone interviews limited fuller participation, particularly among those without stable access to mobile phones or who had recently lost their jobs. Enumerators were given several rounds of training to conduct phone interviews effectively, considering the highly stressful atmosphere caused by the pandemic and its impacts on incomes and livelihoods.
While the findings offer valuable insights into the lived experiences of garment workers during crises, they may not be fully representative of the entire garment workforce in Myanmar, particularly in regions and informal sectors not captured in the sample. As such, the results should be interpreted with caution when extrapolating to broader populations or policy contexts.
7.7 Appendices: Characteristics of Respondents
A larger proportion of the respondents (68%) were female than male (32%). As shown in Table 7.5, more respondents (74%) came from the rural areas and over a quarter of the respondents (26%) came from urban areas. Almost half of the respondents (47%) identified as internal migrants.9 A majority of respondents identified their state or region of origin as Ayeyarwady (40%), Yangon (37%), and other states and regions (14%). Respondents were also identified according to the type of factories where they worked. The majority of respondents worked in the export-oriented garment factories (64%) followed by footwear/bag (19%) which are also export-oriented factories. The remainder of respondents were from ginning (10%) and spinning (7%) factories.
Table 7.5
Characteristics of respondents
Origin of respondents
Rural
Urban
Footwear/Bag
Garment
Ginning
Spinning
Migrants
Non-migrants
74%
26%
19%
64%
10%
7%
47%
53%
Ayeyarwady
40%
19%
32%
41%
5%
23%
44%
25%
Yangon
13%
37%
18%
24%
3%
4%
32%
Mandalay
13%
13%
5%
3%
50%
75%
7%
19%
Magway
9%
15%
6%
11%
23%
12%
10%
Bago
11%
9%
27%
8%
2%
15%
6%
Other States/Regions
14%
8%
12%
12%
20%
17%
8%
Source Authors’ phone survey in December
2020
Over half of the respondents (59%) stated that their factories were located in Yangon, while the rest were located outside of Yangon (41%). As shown in Fig. 7.18, respondents were identified according to their employment status with over half of the respondents (60%) unemployed, 28% were still employed at the time of the survey, 11% were previously unemployed but had recently joined a new job and 8% of the respondents were previously unemployed and had recently been re-employed in a previous factory.
Table 7.6 shows the household size of the respondents interviewed by their native state/region. The states and regions that had the highest number of household members were found to be from other states/regions (5.3), Yangon (5.0), Magway (4.9), Ayeyarwady (4.8), and Mandalay (4.8). Moreover, respondents who had other members with regular income mostly came from Bago (2.1), other states and regions (1.9), and Yangon (1.9). This data shows nearly half of the respondent’s household members rely on the income of other household members.
Table 7.6
Respondents’ Household Size by Native State/Region
Total household
members
Other members with
regular income before COVID-19
Members attending
schools (under 16)
Members above age 65
Ayeyarwady
4.8
1.8
0.9
0.4
Yangon
5.0
1.9
0.8
0.5
Mandalay
4.8
1.8
0.8
0.5
Magway
4.9
1.8
0.8
0.5
Bago
4.7
2.1
0.6
0.5
Other state/region
5.3
1.9
0.9
0.5
Source Authors’ phone survey in December 2020
The survey also asked respondents which other sector they previously worked in to get a better understanding of the labor market dynamics. As shown in Table 7.7, for respondents currently working in the garment sector, over a quarter of them (29%) indicated that they had previously worked in the same sector, showing a sense of labor mobility. Then some workers currently working in the footwear/bag sector had previously worked in the garment sector (17%), indicating a sense of overlap between the two sectors possibly due to skills transferability. Workers currently in the footwear/bag sector reported previously working in the same sector (11%). Over a third (35%) of respondents in the footwear/bag sector indicated that they had never worked before, meaning this was their first job. A similar proportion of respondents in the garment and spinning sectors had never worked before. This data shows that significantly, garment, footwear/bag and spinning industry are entry level for young and less-experienced people to enter the labor market. Interestingly, 44% of respondents from ginning factories have worked in the agriculture sector previously. This reflects how this industry is linked with agriculture works. Another reason is that all ginning factories are small and medium-sized and located in small towns (apart from Mandalay).
Table 7.7
Respondents’ previous work experience prior to the COVID-19
Footwear/bag (%)
Garment (%)
Spinning (%)
Ginning (%)
Agriculture sector
(including fisheries and livestock)
4
9
33
42
Garment
17
29
0
0
Footwear/Bag
11
2
0
0
Spinning
0
0
13
0
Ginning
0
0
0
8
Other manufacturing sector
12
8
3
5
Construction sector
7
3
10
8
Service sector
4
4
0
6
General/Casual worker
3
2
0
6
Micro/small-owned business
6
4
7
6
Others
2
5
7
3
Never worked before (income jobs)
35
33
27
15
Source Authors’ phone survey in December 2020
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Between April and May 2020, the SSB declared that over 150,000 insured workers in Myanmar were laid off because of temporary or permanent factory closures, and the majority are from garment industry.
On 1st of February 2021, the Myanmar military detained members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), including President Win Myint and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and later removed 24 ministers, and finding 11 replacements within the same day.
On 8 April 2020, the Sustainable Textile of Asian Region Network, the body which brings together representatives of the producing associations from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Vietnam, released a joint statement on the issue, calling upon the brands and retailers to offer fair compensation to suppliers. The call did not materialize and the industry began to collapse subsequently. Accessed 1 May 2022. http://www.asiatex.org/ennewss/393.html.
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Myan Ku is a social assistance program funded by the European Union to support the needs of dismissed garment, textile, and footwear workers from May 2020 to December 2021. In order to provide assistance, the program has collected workers lists from 90% of operating factories of the sector in 2020.
This paper used the legal definition under the 2015 SME Development Law for categorizing the size of firms. For garment factories that fall under labor-intensive manufacturing sector, small factories employ up to 300 workers, medium-sized factories employ from 300 to 600 workers, and large factories employ more than 600 workers. However, in case of garment industry, there are also very large factories that employ more than 1,000 workers, which are operated by foreign investors and joint-venture firms.
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