By Min Ni Kyaw - May 12, 2025
Workers at the Myanmar Ju Chuan Footwear factory say they were made to work continuous overtime after being promised increased bonuses, only to find the factory failed to fulfill that promise. According to workers, HR held a meeting with supervisors, and it was through the supervisors that the promise was relayed.
“The supervisor told the sub-supervisors and line leaders that they would raise the bonus if we regularly did OT. We kept doing overtime after hearing that. Now, the factory tricked us — they only made us do OT, but never raised the bonus,” they said.
Currently, the factory’s bonus is only 7,800 kyats, and workers say they were never told the amount by which it would be raised.
Workers have commonly worked until 7:30 PM and, beyond that, until 9 PM, 1:30 AM the next day, and even as late as 4:30 AM, according to workers. In addition, on days when they worked OT until 9:30 PM, the factory allowed only a 10-minute break, a worker said.
“We work straight through until 7:30 PM after lunch, then get just a 10-minute break. Then we work again until 9:30 PM. During the break, they give us a single bun. This has been going on for a while. Workers are so exhausted that workplace injuries are becoming frequent,” the workers said.
The factory has required workers to do both midnight and all-night overtime shifts since Thingyan, and workers have had no rest days at all as they had to work three Sundays, workers said.
Despite the shortage of rest time and workplace injuries, the factory’s clinic is usually closed, and the nurse is typically busy with office work, making treatment inaccessible, according to workers. Furthermore, workers said that when injuries occur, the factory refuses to take responsibility and marks them as absent without leave for not presenting a medical certificate.
“The clinic only has paracetamol, and they just wrap it with plaster and secure it with a clip for a dislocated finger. The nurse is always in the office. She rarely shows up when something happens. If she tells us to go to another clinic, the factory just sends us home, not to a clinic. They mark us as absent and deduct our bonus, regular wages, and incentive pay if we don’t have a prescription the next day,” they said.
Workers reported that the factory has been cutting wages and bonuses without providing legal entitlements such as proper leave types and labor rights. Although salaries are usually paid through bank cards, the April salary was paid in cash, and during the disbursement, workers were still being made to work, they said.
“Every factory ends work shift at 4:30 PM on payday. That means the salary is usually disbursed by 2:30 or 3 PM. But we weren’t paid until after 5 PM. We had to go upstairs to the office to collect it, while others were still working during that time. They said they wouldn’t pay extra for those hours,” a worker said.
Myanmar Ju Chuan Footwear factory is a Chinese national-owned factory operating two facilities on Min Ayar Road, Shwe Than Lwin Industrial Zone, Hlaing Thar Yar Township, according to workers.
