By Min Ni Kyaw - Apr 07, 2025

Workers say management has threatened that wages for the Thingyan holidays will not be paid unless they agree to work on substitute days at the Sunday garment factory in Tat Kalay village, Kali Kyay Group, Bago.

“They said they'd close early for Thingyan and made us work on a Sunday, calling it a substitution day. They said wages for the Thingyan holidays wouldn’t be paid when workers refused. They also forced us to sign a document,” said a factory worker.

Although the official Thingyan holiday runs from April 13 to 21, the factory announced it would close starting April 11. However, the factory forced workers to work on April 5 and 6 as compensation without consent, according to workers for the two early closure days.

“The decision to close the factory early did not come from the workers. They didn’t even ask for our opinion. The factory decided on their own and then forced us to make up the days. They threatened not to pay Thingyan holiday wages when we didn’t agree,” said workers.

Workers also reported verbal abuse from supervisors in the workplace, and in some cases, physical mistreatment.

“Supervisors physically assault workers and HR doesn’t take any action. They pretend not to know and don’t protect staff. They start yelling. They call for night overtime, and they threaten to fire us if we don’t show up,” workers said.

Back in August 2023, workers had also reported that SUDEY Industrial Myanmar Co., Ltd’s supervisors used verbal abuse and publicly shamed them to meet production targets, harming their dignity.

SUDEY is owned by a Chinese national and employs over 1,000 workers manufacturing Korean garments.