By Myo Thein - Sep 24, 2025
Management at Ever Lead (Myanmar) Lingerie Co., Ltd is instructing workers to destroy payslips and provide false information to auditors representing international brands, according to workers at the factory.
Workers claim the manager ordered them to tear up their payslips ahead of scheduled audits, fearing that accurate records would raise concerns with auditors. “The leaders said the manager instructed them that there will be trouble if the audit team sees our actual payslips. So, we were told to destroy them. Three workers per line were coached to say they earn just over 300,000 MMK and work less than 100 hours of overtime per month during the audit,” one worker said.
In reality, workers report earning over 500,000 MMK per month due to excessive overtime. They are required to forge their overtime signatures to show only 2.5 hours of overtime per day, while actually working beyond those hours often until 7 PM.
Regular working hours are from 7:30 AM to 6 PM. However, workers say overtime beyond 6 PM is not recorded, and they’re not asked to sign for it. Despite raising these concerns with the WCC (Workplace Coordination Committee), no action has been taken.
“We asked WCC to negotiate for better OT compensation, but they didn’t say anything. They even reported to the office when some of us discussed the idea of protesting for higher wages. The HR manager dismissed it, saying we’re not in a brothel where everyone can protest just because they want a raise,” a worker stated.
Other complaints include restricted access to toilets and manipulated break times. Workers say they lose overtime pay if they fail to clock in using the fingerprint system within a 10-minute window.
“You can’t use the toilet 30 minutes before the end of the shift. Yet, they call us to the meeting point 5 minutes before the shift starts, stealing our time. We have to clock in and out using the fingerprint scanner during lunch breaks. We lose an hour’s overtime pay if we’re late or miss it by just a few minutes. They even lock the exit to stop us from using the restroom at 11 AM before lunch,” workers said.
Supervisors and Chinese management reportedly begin daily meetings five minutes before the official start of work. A female Chinese line manager is said to film and photograph late arrivals, submitting the footage to foreign management.
Ever Lead (Myanmar) Lingerie Co., Ltd is a Chinese citizen-owned factory and a Made Project member, located in Htaminsokhone Village Tract, Hlegu Township, Yangon Region. The factory produces women’s lingerie for brands like Women.secret and Viva.
