Robot factories could threaten jobs of millions of garment workers

As Adidas announces a new robot shoe factory, an ILO report says up to 90% of workers in south-east Asia could face unemployment due to automation

The jobs of nearly 90% of garment and footwear workers in Cambodia and Vietnam are at risk from automated assembly lines – or “sewbots” – according to a new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

There are 9 million people, mostly young women, dependent upon jobs in textiles, garments, and footwear within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) economic area, which includes Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. These are the workers the ILO identifies as most susceptible to losing their jobs to the new robot workforce.

MALAYSIA::: 1059 13 7 1094 Disk-drive makers Seagate, WD ‘to close Penang plants’

FMT Reporters

 | July 16, 2016

Report says about 3,000 jobs to be lost as disk-drive maker quits production after 28 years in Bayan Lepas

PETALING JAYA: Disk drive makers Seagate and Western Digital are moving production to Thailand, with an expected loss of 3,000 jobs in Penang, according to press reports.

Seagate’s plant in Bayan Lepas will be sold, after 28 years, as well as a 16.4 hectare plot of land in Batu Kawan which it had announced two years ago as the site for its expansion.

The closure is a result of weak demand and changes in technology, and comes about a decade after the company laid off about 4,000 people in Penang.