By Myo Thein - Oct 20, 2025

Workers from Sun Star Garment Factory have reported to the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM) that they are not receiving their full wages despite working more than 200 hours of overtime per month.

The factory has been in operation for nearly a year and is reportedly violating multiple provisions of Myanmar’s labour laws, according to workers.

“We’re working more than 200 hours of overtime a month. We work non-stop until 9:30 p.m after a 30-minute lunch break. There are no rest days, no weekends off. Some workers are quitting due to health problems from overwork,” said one worker.

The regular schedule runs from Monday to Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., which totals around 13.5 working hours per day. Workers also report being required to work on Sundays without a break, making it a full seven-day workweek.

“With over 200 hours of overtime, we should be earning more than 300,000 kyats. But in reality, we’re only getting a little over 200,000 kyats even after working 25 days. And the payslip doesn’t show any clear breakdown,” workers explained.

Currently, daily wages are said to be 9,800 kyats, and overtime is paid at 1,800 kyats per hour. Some sewing workers have reportedly been reassigned to other departments by the factory and were subjected to wage deductions as a result.

“Some of us were hired to do sewing work. But they start asking about our qualifications and suggest switching to quality control (QC) if they don’t like our performance. If we agree, they say we must pay a 40,000 kyat ‘internship fee,’ which is then deducted from our salary,” said one worker.

Supervisors and management are demanding excessive output and verbally abusing workers in the process. The factory, owned by a Myanmar national, is located on 16th Ward, Zeya Thiri Road, Hlaingtharyar Township, Yangon Region.

Sun Star is working on subcontracted orders from larger factories with over 50 workers operating on two production lines, according to the workers.