By Yoon Sat - Jun 13, 2024

Some company owners in Yangon have been arrested and investigated by the Military Council under Section 505 for raising wages after they sympathized with the country's economic decline and rising commodity prices.

“They will be sued under article 505. Factories doesn’t include only companies.  There are 7 employers in total now released on bail. I called and checked. The cause of the problem is that they announced that stuffs who got 200,000 kyats will get 300,000 kyats and those who got 300,000 kyats will get 400,000 kyats. They can raise as much as they want to.  But posting it on the internet will cause the civil servants discouraged and resign out of the civil servants. They are arrested with Section 505 because of giving incentives. All of them have been bailed out by the Police Station Officers,” said a person who is close to the Junta.

The employers who were charged with Section 505 of the Penal Code are company owners who are accused of causing incentive to civil servants to resign from work after posting such wages on the Internet and those 7 employers are from South Okkalarpa, Mingalardone and Hlaing Thar Yar and their posts are also forced to deleted. 

Since June 1, some company owners in Yangon have been seen posting on social networking sites with the company’s name, raising salaries from 25 to 30 percent depending on the stuffs’ length of service and proficiency in response to the rise in commodity prices by humanitarianism and those 7 employers are filed lawsuit by the Junta.

The minimum wage in Myanmar is set at 4,800 kyats for 8 hours of work according to the law, and although the law stipulates that it should be increased every 2 years, it is not still reviewed until 6 years later. The subsidy was increased by 1000 kyats in last year, but factory workers are still suffering as it is not a basic wage raise.