By Min Ni Kyaw - May 23, 2025

#Letter

I am from Laos. We decided to do the same after seeing other workers from Laos reaching out for help. We are from PF Footwear Factory.

We came to Laos through the AHTAN Company from Myanmar. In Myanmar, we signed a contract with the company, but the contract didn’t mention working hours. However, once we got here, they told us we had to work 11 hours a day—8 regular hours and 3 hours of overtime.

We previously staged a protest about excessive production targets. AHTAN came to mediate, and things seemed like they might improve, but our demands were never fully met. We've been enduring this for a year now. The employer said that workers who reach one year of service are entitled to 15 days of leave.

There are two groups among those of us who’ve completed one year. Yet none of us were allowed to take leave. At first, two interpreters spoke to the CEO, and then only those considered “less useful” to the factory were given time off. Those who didn’t get leave were told they’d receive $8 per day for 10 days—$80 total—calculated at the local exchange rate.

Now, we haven’t received that money, so we raised the issue with the factory again. But they gave vague answers about the payment and claimed we could only take leave after working for one year and six months.

Previously they told us it would be 15 days, but now they say it’s just 10 days. We're extremely exhausted. They say meals and accommodations are provided, but the food is often just rice and bone scraps. They only give us lunch which is usually duck wings on Sundays.

We have social security cards, but we don’t know which clinic or hospital to go to if we get sick. We have to go to a clinic an hour away near the market and pay our own medical expenses since we live far from town. If we tell them, we might get a ride back in a car if we’re lucky. If not, we have to find our own way.

Our salary is $250 per month. But we have to pay $6 for tax, $1 monthly bank fee, and $4 for social security.

We have to lie and say we work 8 hours plus overtime and that we’re treated fairly when inspection teams come. Those who want to go back are forced to pay $450 as a compensation.

Compared to other factories, ours has longer working hours, fewer rights, and unrealistic production targets.

We only want fairness. PF Factory also confiscates our passports just like other factories. There’s a lot more we could say, but we’ve reached a breaking point and can no longer stay silent.

Thank you, Myanmar Labour News.