One of the employees from the Japanese company IHI Infrastructure Systems Co., Ltd., which is implementing some projects in cooperation with the Ministry of Construction said that the company officials said that some employees will be paid overtime it only they work more than 10 hours a day.
“The company's drivers work 13 hours a day. The fact that they will be paid overtime after working more than 10 hours a day is a huge loss for them. A driver is protecting the lives of others. They have to drive at any time according to work needs, so there is no special time for lunch and rest. Drivers would rest if they have no task to drive. Saying that there are hours which they don't drive, if only they work over 10 hours will be considered overtime, so they have to work 2 hours for free every day. As we employees, we can rest as soon as we get off the car. But they are still driving,” A company worker told Myanmar Labor News.
IHI Infrastructure Systems Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company participating in the “Attyan” and “Zar Tha Pyin” bridge projects, and the admin team official said that the drivers of the project would be paid overtime only if they work for more than 10 hours.
The labor laws enacted in Myanmar stipulate 8 hours of work per day. It is stipulated that double overtime pay must be paid for working beyond the daily working hours.
A company employee told Myanmar Labor News that the company's drivers start the work at 7:00 a.m. and leave at around 8:00 p.m.
The employee said that the company's working hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
"We have also driven in such projects. This definition is ridiculous. Myanmar's labor law stipulates a working day of 8 hours. There is no discrimination against the drivers that they have to work 10 hours. All workers are the same. After working for 8 hours, they must pay overtime and the worker should receive 2 times the hourly wage.
The company I work for produces alcohol. They give me overtime fee for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to pick and sent the staffs. If the hours are more than this, they added for that too, " explained a person who works as a driver in a private company.
One of the company's employees said that around 10 office drivers are working at the company that is working on the bridge project and they are driving the vehicles in turn.
"The drivers have to take turns driving the cars. And their off days are 7 days a month with turns. I don't know if they don’t pay overtime because of that. But paying overtime if only they work more than 10 hours of work is not in line with the law. Working hours are defined by law. No one can fix it," said the employee.
Some employees also said that the admin team they pay less than the standard salary to the probationary employees.
"Newbies are given with 10 percent reduction in salary as a trial period. I don't know what it means. How can a construction staff work without expertise? They come to work because they are experts. I don't know by what law they are cutting the salary by 10 percent as a trial,'' one of the workers told Myanmar Labor News.
Some of the employees said that the company side explain the overtime, working hours and trial period issues in advance before the contract is signed.
However, the labor law enacted in Myanmar states that any contract that does not comply with the law is void, and a labor activist explained as followings:
“Either the EC contract or a contract with both side’s request included, the main thing that needs to be followed is not to conflict with the labor law and the meaning of it. It is also written in the labor law that that the contents that are against the law are null and void.”
The company's employees told Myanmar Labor News that IHI Infrastructure Systems Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company, and they operate factories to work opening a factory for bridge construction
on bridge construction projects in Tha Kay Ta Industrial Zone and Myaung Ta Kar Industrial Zone in Myanmar.
