The Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population will provide social security benefits for insured workers from factories and workshops which are temporarily suspended for inspections.

“We’ll pay 40 percent of the social security fees to them as benefits,” the ministry announced in statement on April 28.

As such, owners of the suspended factories and workshops should apply for social security benefits for their registered insured workers at their township social security offices, the statement said.

In Myanmar, there are about 1.3 million insured workers who regularly pay social security fees.

On April 20, the government ordered factories not to reopen after the long Thingyan holiday break before being inspected by the health ministry to ensure compliance with COVID-19 safety measures.

Thousands of factories have had to stop operations temporarily since April 20 for the government to conduct COVID-19 inspections at their premises. More than 2000 had been inspected as of April 27.

Meanwhile, over 60,000 workers across the country lost their jobs after 175 factories were forced to shut down as a result of cancelled orders and disruption of raw material supplies caused by COVID-19, according to U Myo Aung, permanent secretary of Labour, Immigration and Population.

Workers at around 100 shuttered factories have yet to be compensated.