By Min Ni Kyaw - Mar 18, 2025
Workers at Alpha Best Global Limited footwears factory are demanding a wage increase, according to employees. The factory workers began their demand for a higher base salary on March 17 within the workplace.
"We are asking for a base daily wage of 10,000 MMK. The factory management said in this morning that they could only increase the attendance bonus to 40,000 MMK while keeping the daily wage the same. We are still negotiating. There are only two demands: to reinstate the Chinese supervisor and to increase the daily wage," said one worker.
The factory had set a daily wage of 7,800 MMK, an overtime rate of 1,750 MMK per hour, and an attendance bonus of 15,000 MMK before these demands were made, according to sources.
"The wages we earn are unfair with current market prices, which is why we are making this demand. We are making our request peacefully inside the factory, staying at our workstations without working, without causing any disturbances. We started this demand at 1:00 PM yesterday, after lunch break," workers said.
The factory employs around 1,000 workers, and as of the morning of March 18, more than 100 workers were participating in the protest, according to employees. The factory’s supervisors told the protesting workers to go home if they were not working, and factory management stated that they could not increase the daily wage, a worker familiar with the situation reported.
"The final response from management is that they cannot increase the daily wage. They said, ‘Come if you want to work tomorrow. If not, don’t come.’ They also completely refused to reinstate the Chinese supervisor. They are only willing to increase the attendance bonus, but how much will that really help? Other factories are already paying 10,000 MMK per day. Here, we start work at 7:00 AM and finish at 8:00 PM, earlier in than other factories and later out than others, but our wages are not comparable," said another worker.
Alpha Best Global Limited factory, which manufactures GEOX brand footwears, is a Chinese national-owned footwears factory located in the Wataya Industrial Zone, Shwe Pyi Thar Township, Yangon, according to workers.
