Myo Thein
#Letter
I work at Myanmar Gigi in Thadu Kan Industrial Zone.
We are being required to do overtime late into the night, and we also have to work continuously on Sundays without rest. That is why I am asking for help.
Working until 8:30 p.m. is very difficult for us. With the current situation being unsafe, returning home late at night is not manageable.
Most of the workers are women, and they are asking for help as well.
Some female workers have even experienced situations where the family members who came to pick them up at night disappeared on the way to meet them.
We have been required to do overtime for the entire month of November, and we have also been told that overtime will continue into December.
We have to work on Sundays two weeks out of the month. Even when we work on Sundays, we are not paid double like other factories. We are paid only at the regular overtime rate. The normal OT rate is 2,000 kyats per hour.
From 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., we are paid only 16,000 kyats.
If we do not work on Sunday, the following day we are not allowed to do the usual two hours of overtime and are instead made to work only the regular four hours.
What I want to say most is that working overtime late into the night is very difficult for us.
We have to work until 7:30 p.m. or 8:30 p.m on Saturdays. This happens regularly.
The main reason we are asking for help is because returning home at 8:30 p.m. is too late, and we cannot manage working overtime under these conditions.
