By Hsu Latt Phyu - Sep 17, 2025
#Letter
We are workers from Myanmar Fortress Wealth Garment Hua Fu (Myanmar), a garment factory located at the corner of Anawrahta Road and Ayeyarwady Road in Anawrahta Industrial Zone, Hlaingtharyar Township, Yangon Region.
The factory employs over 1,300 workers and manufactures the “PORT AUTHORITY” brand. There is no trade union in the workplace, but a WCC (Workplace Coordinating Committee) is present.
Myanmar Fortress Wealth Garment Hua Fu (Myanmar) is one of the factories under the Dishang Group.
The issue we are raising is about the denial of emergency leave, which, according to labour law, is a type of leave that workers are entitled to apply for in case of urgent personal matters.
Although the factory officially allows such leave and has directed us to inform our line supervisors or leaders via phone when requesting it, in reality, when we call to request leave, the supervisors and leaders often don’t answer their phones. As a result, we rely on co-workers to request the leave on our behalf but even then, the leave is denied, and the day is marked as an absence, leading to a deduction of both the attendance bonus and the daily wage, totaling over 40,000 MMK per day.
Due to the loss caused by this situation, we believe responsible personnel overseeing leave management must take accountability and provide a fair resolution.
Our attendance bonus is already deducted when we miss a day with prior leave request, and on top of that, when leave is not granted, our daily wage is also cut amounting to over 40,000 MMK for a single day.
Additionally, in terms of work performance, the factory sets unrealistic production targets—demanding more than what workers in each line can reasonably complete. Intense pressure is placed on workers when targets aren’t met.
There are also underage and young workers employed inside the factory.
Only half-day shifts are designated as regular hours on Saturdays. The remaining half is considered overtime. Workers who leave early due to various reasons are accused of not completing the full 8-hour shift, and the factory support allowance of 4,200 MMK is deducted for all four Sundays if there are four Sundays in the month.
However, workers do fully complete their work hours. Yet, managers and supervisors claim that Saturday shifts do not count as a full 8-hour day, and thus they deduct the Sunday support allowance.
In truth, workers complete the full hours on Saturdays but may not work overtime. Even so, the total weekly work hours are fully met. If a worker does not stay for Saturday overtime, only that week should be considered incomplete and there is no reason to deduct support allowance for the entire month.
Furthermore, when workers apply for emergency leave in accordance with labor laws, the factory still refuses to grant it. Wages are still deducted unfairly even when full work hours are completed. This shows a lack of respect for labor law by factory management.
Additionally, this constitutes an unlawful and arbitrary deduction of wages. Therefore, we are submitting this complaint through the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), seeking assistance in resolving these matters.
The workers’ demands are as follows:
- Recalculate and reimburse the 4,200 MMK support allowance deducted for Saturdays when overtime was not performed.
- Ensure production targets are set fairly based on realistic worker capacity.
- Accept and respect emergency leave requests in accordance with Myanmar labour law.
Thank you.
