By Myo Thein - Aug 29, 2025
#Letter
We are workers from the New Plus garment factory. Every day, we are made to work overtime until 9 PM. We don’t get Sundays off either. This has been going on for more than a month.
Supervisors and assistant supervisors receive bonuses and wages that are very different from ours. They make us sew a lot of garments during overtime, and the high output they get becomes bonuses for the team leaders.
We have to return home late at night, often in unsafe conditions. To be clear, even when we finish overtime at 7 PM, the route home is not safe. If anything happens, the factory doesn’t take responsibility.
Some team leaders scold us until we feel miserable if we refuse to do overtime. The factory says supervisors shouldn’t use harsh words, but in reality, they keep pressuring us to do overtime, and those who refuse are still scolded.
On Saturday the 16th, we had to work until 6:30 PM. The New Plus factory manager just smiled in response when we brought up that the labour office only allows 20 hours of overtime per week.
Inspections happen occasionally, but they change nothing. Even when public notices say they’ll take action against factories exceeding overtime permits, nothing changes. We still see signs that they’ll keep calling us for overtime.
The complaint box is just for show. We can put letters in it, and they do read them, but no inspection or action ever follows.
The factory manager acts like he doesn’t know anything ven when sexual harassment happens and we report it. Inspectors come on Saturdays, but nothing is ever done.
It’s like the labour office staff just leave once they’re paid. We workers are the ones who suffer.
They’re still calling us for overtime now. We don’t even know if it’s legal anymore. It’s been going on too long. Our health is affected. Our safety isn’t protected. Nothing is working out.
Some departments are fine with doing overtime, but others are not in a position to do so. We help out as much as we can.
We’re human too, so we just ask to be treated as human.
All we want is for someone to monitor the factory. For the factory to treat workers according to the law.
We also want to thank Myanmar Labour News.
- Workers from New Plus Garment Factory
