By Min Ni Kyaw - Mar 15, 2025
GTIT Easter Garment Factory required workers to work overtime on two government-declared public holidays, only allowing a day off on the Full Moon Day of Tabaung, according to workers. The factory, located in Watayar Industrial Zone, Shwe Pyi Thar Township, Yangon, employs over 1,000 workers.
“We were told that our daily wages and attendance bonus would be cut if we didn’t show up when we said they couldn’t work on the holidays. The factory had already scheduled makeup work days. We reported this to the WCC, but they just mediated. The factory then changed its approach and said they would treat the holiday work as overtime and pay immediately. However, they didn’t make us sign any official overtime approval forms. Everyone had to work. They paid overtime wages for March 12 on the same day, but they didn’t pay for March 14. They said it would only be paid on March 15. But isn’t overtime supposed to be pre-approved? Now, the entire workforce had to work without signing any consent forms for overtime. We didn’t get to rest on holidays. And now they’re saying that they will turn Sunday into a makeup work day. There are no more rest days. The five factories under this company are handling things differently. Other units got proper holidays, but our unit was forced to work like this,” a worker said.
The factory requires workers to work from 8:00 AM to 7:30 PM, including three hours of overtime. Until 5:30 PM on Saturdays. Daily overtime is mandatory, and workers who cannot work late shifts have found no resolution despite raising concerns through the WCC.
“We have to work until 7:30 PM, and it’s extremely exhausting. We just want to return to the previous schedule of finishing at 6:30 PM. Given the current security situation, working until 7:30 PM is unsafe and completely inconvenient. They make us work until 5:30 PM on Saturdays, while other factories only require workers to stay until 4:30 PM. We just want them to follow the same 4:30 PM finish time on Saturdays,” a female worker said.
GTIT Easter Garment Factory is a Chinese-owned factory manufacturing brands such as CALLIOPE and ALLER Bien Sport.
