The junta announced on September 30 that government employees will receive an additional allowance of 30,000 kyats starting from October.
Day workers working in government departments will be given an additional allowance of 1,000 kyats for working 8 hours a day. It is questionable whether this is done to raise the minimum wage rate, which is a necessary domestic change.The minimum wage law was enacted in 2013 and. In June 29 2015, the law of a mandatory minimum wage rate for labours was established.
The proposed rate that was enacted was that for workers in Myanmar, regardless of location or type of work, they should be paid at a rate of 450 kyats per hour and 3600 kyats per day for 8 hours of work.
The ministry also stipulated that it is not related to small businesses with less than 15 workers and family-owned businesses in this definition.
In addition, the law stipulates that the minimum wage should be reviewed and prepared once every two (2) years so that it does not set a fixed minimum wage in line with rising commodity prices. Therefore, in 2018, the minimum wage rate was revised for the second time, and the wage for an 8-hour work day was increased from 3,600 kyats to 4,800 kyats.
Currently, the period for the third review has passed, but the process has not yet begun. In this situation, the Junta announcing that the increase of the subsidy for state employees by 30,000 kyats is like limiting the local minimum wage rate to an amount.
It seems that the Military Council does not consider whether the salary of the employees is compatible with the daily rising commodity prices.In the days before the coup, the cost of living in Yangon was able to be survive with the salary income of a worker, but now the cost of living has increased, making it difficult to sustain.
Before, the price of one piece of raw rice was only around 1,500 Kyats, but currently it has risen from 3,500 Kyats to more than 4,000 Kyats.
Sweet rice, which used to be around 2,400 kyats per piece, is currently worth more than 4,000 kyats to over 6,000 kyats per piece.
In this country, where the basic wage (4,800) per day is only set, rice, which is the basic food item, is even higher than the basic wage, so it is no longer easy for the labours to survive.
" The labours will be comfortable with the current price only if they earn about ten thousand a day. Today, they can't even fill their stomach even if they work day and night. Now, even if the daily wage is increased to only 1,000, I think it is really unfair," said a former member of the factory union.
Currently, due to the insufficient minimum wage, workers are forced to work overtime hours forced by employers, and while working overtime, they are on the brink of starvation.
In an interview with Daw Khaing Zar Aung, president of the Myanmar Manufacturing and Industrial Workers' Federation (IWFM), Myanmar Labor News said, "In some garment factories in Myanmar, workers work more than 15 hours a day and have little sleep."
"Labours at an H&M manufacturing factory said that work starts at 6 a.m. The actual start time should be 7:30. The workers have to meet the standard of the fabric requested by the factory. They had to work overtime until the midnight. It's even worse for the workers who live in the factory. Some of them get up at 3 in the morning to work. Some of them have to work until 3:30 in the morning. I found that he worked more than 15 hours a day and only slept for 4 hours,” said Daw Khaing Zar Aung.
This is the situation faced by local factory labours in order to earn a living. Both the employers and the officials from the Ministry of Labor are responsible to set a wage that is suitable for the times and enough to survive for by working 8 hours a day.
Currently, the Ministry has not released the minimum wage rate in most of the local factories, but there are also some factories who pay an eight-hour day wage from 5,600 kyats to more than 6,000 kyats.
However, though it is not officially set by the government, it is set under a different title, but due to their re-cut bonuses and other cuts, the wages are even lower than before, and the labours are in a more difficult situation.
Now, this increase for government employees shows that the increase is just over one thousand kyat per day.
"The employer's increase of over a thousand is not even worth a cup of tea. In fact, it is destroying the wages raising in line with the times. I don't seem they give a raise because they are generous. It's just that they are defining to raise only that much,” said a labour activist.
The ministry has not yet taken steps to set wages in line with the times for the minimum wage rate, which was set when the US dollar was worth more than one thousand kyats while one US dollar is equal to more than 3,000 Kyats now.
In a country where the price of local basic food, home, property and car are rising depending on the price of the dollar, the fact that the minimum wage is only allowed to increase by one thousand kyat shows the attitude of the Ministry of Labor towards the workers.
It is necessary for the ministry not to turn a blind eye to the fact that the law is drafted and enacted to review and prepare once every (2) years in order to meet the rising commodity prices and to be a wage in line with the times.
While the international community is watching the domestic affairs with interest, how much the minimum wage rate will be set for the labours will continue to be monitored.
We will have to continue to watch the realistic game changing actions of the Ministry of Labor on the change of the minimum wage rate for the sake of the labours hope and benefits of more than 600 Kyats per hour rather than the reports from the State-owned newspapers and Ministry's social network pag
