By Thar Gyi - Jun 16, 2025
Workers say that at Mai Yi Bei (Yangon) Garment Manufacturing Co., Ltd, a garment factory, the supervisor is not only taking bribes in exchange for hiring workers but is also deducting money from their salaries. According to workers who reported to the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), the supervisor has been promoted to factory-wide supervisor by management and is responsible for recruiting overtime and general workers.
“There is a supervisor at the factory who hires underage workers in exchange for bribes. That supervisor is the one who recruits for overtime. The factory has promoted them to be the head supervisor for the entire plant. It’s that supervisor who does the hiring when the factory needs more workers. They hire underage workers. Every payday, workers are required to buy household items, even dried shrimp, for the supervisor,” they said.
In the first week of June, brand inspectors visited the factory and found that the factory was hiding instances of forced overtime (midnight and all-night) and confirmed the presence of child labor, according to workers.
Despite these issues, the supervisor has been promoted to a leadership role and, deducts large amounts—tens of thousands of kyats—from workers’ pay without providing salary slips according to workers.
“There are cases where leaders are promoted to supervisor from being just line leaders. They don’t give pay slips anymore to us on payday. They just say, for example, ‘your salary is 500,000 kyats, don’t tell anyone, you're being paid the highest’. But the real salary is higher. The office salary list shows 700,000 kyats. Each supervisor exploits at least 100,000 to 200,000 kyats from each worker,” workers said.
The factory also deducts 500 kyats each time a fingerprint scan doesn't register. Even a slight delay in clock-in time results in financial penalties, workers say.
“They make us sign a document saying we acknowledge, understand, and agree to the deductions when we forget to clock in, or if we’re just a few minutes late. But they never return any of the deducted money. Whether the fingerprint scanner registers or not is unpredictable. A lot of people use it at once, and there are system failures. But still, they take money from us,” said the workers.
Mai Yi Bei (Yangon) Garment Manufacturing Co., Ltd, (Gaung Thonlone) is a garment factory owned by Chinese national and located on Padauk Road, in Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone, Hlaing Tharyar Township, Yangon. The factory employs over 1,000 workers and manufactures branded garments mister lady, clevercare.info, ALCOTT, and ORIGINAL MARINES brands.
