"Court fines factory owner and manager for forcing workers to work overtime without their consent", 26 August 2024

The Golden Colour Fashion Myanmar garment factory... located at No. (-), Myaung Min U Myat Street, Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone (3), Insein District, Yangon Region, has been fined by the court for forcing workers to work overtime without their consent and is no longer allowed to continue to work overtime.

The Insein Township Court has imposed a fine on the factory for continuously forcing workers to work overtime, the Ministry of Labor announced on August 23.

The Golden Colour Fashion Myanmar garment factory...was closed on July 8, 2024. On the 11th and 12th of July, the workers were forced to work 2 hours more than the allowed overtime (19:30), and the workers were forced to work continuously without a break of 30 minutes after the normal working hours...

Golden Colour Fashion (Myanmar) Garment Factory, which is currently manufacturing [for] Kappa / Defacto, reported that workers were forced to work overtime (OT) without their consent last June. The workers complained to the inspectors, but the factory failed to comply. The Insein District Office filed a lawsuit...on August 18, and the following action was taken.

The Insein Township Court scheduled a trial date for August 21. After examining the case, the defendant pleaded guilty. The Township Judge ordered the factory owner and manager to pay a fine of two hundred thousand kyats each and a total of four hundred thousand kyats each under Section 85 of the Factories Act, 1951. If they fail to pay the fine, they will each be sentenced to 15 days in prison...

In addition, the factory employs more than (1,000) workers, and in November 2022, the employer cut the workers' wages by almost half, leading to a protest demanding full payment of the wages.

[Translation via Google Translate]