In Bu Tho Township, 18 day labourers did not receive their wages in full after the road construction project they were working on for the Min Bagan Company [1] was halted in March 2018. As a result, they faced livelihood difficulties and had to go in debt to buy food. The company still owes them 1,612,000 kyats (USD 1,060). [2]

 

Part 1 – Incident Details

Type of Incident Unpaid wages
Date of Incident(s) March 2018

Incident Location (Village, Township and District)

K---village, Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho Township, Hpapun District
Victim Information
Name U [3] L---
Age 41
Sex Male
Family Married
Occupation Driver
Religion  Islam
Position Villager
Village Section No. ---, Meh Klaw Village tract, Bu Tho Township, Hpapun district. 
Perpetrator Information
Name(s) Position Company Name Location Supervisor
U Thein Zaw Engineer Min Bagan Company Yangon U Min Aung Zaw Lat (Owner of Min Bagan Company)

 

Part 2 - Information Quality

1. Explain in detail how you collected this information. 
I have received this information from U L ---, one of the day labourers who did not receive his wages. 
2. Explain how the source verified this information.
The source experienced this situation first-hand. 

 

Part 3 – Complete Description of the Incident

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail. 

The incident took place in March 2018 in K--- village, Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho Township, Mutraw (Hpapun) District. U L --- other people from K--- village were working as informal day labourers on a road construction project between Mah Htaw and Htee Tha Bluh Hta village tracts for the Min Bagan Company. The company started the project in January 2018 and hired local people to work on the road and bridge construction. The operation was part of a community development project planned by the government.

 

The Min Bagan company ran out of funds for the road construction and halted the project in March 2018. After that, U Thein Zaw, a Min Bagan Company engineer, did not pay the day labourers in full. Instead, he kept the money for himself and repeatedly postponed the payment.

 

The day labourers should have received between 5,500 kyats (USD 3.62) [4] and 6,000 kyats (USD 3.95) per day for men and between 4,000 kyats (USD 2.63) and 5,000 kyats (USD 3.29) for women, but eighteen of them are still waiting for their wages to be paid in full. Even though the company promised to pay them, it has not done so yet. In total, U Thein Zaw still owes 1,612,000 kyats (USD 1,060) to U L--- and the other day labourers.

 

The day labourers depend on their wages to secure their livelihoods and provide for their family, as they do not own enough lands to live off subsistence farming. As a result of non-payment, they went into debt to buy food, which caused them economic difficulties and anxiety. Ma E---, one of the day labourers, expressed her feelings to KHRG: “I felt really angry because we didn’t have money to buy goods.”

 

As they still had not received their money, the day labourers discussed with K--- village leaders possible ways of taking action. They drafted and signed a complaint letter to reclaim the rest of their wages from the company, which they sent to the Chief Minister of Kayin State, Nan Khin Htway Myint, on August 13th 2018.

 

After the road construction project was halted, people from K--- village were only able to engage in intermittent, informal work. Since January 2019, they have been working as day labourers on a road construction project for the Sein Sin Kyel Company. They now receive their wages on time, which has allowed them to pay back their debts. The project they are working on should be completed in July 2019.

 

In June 2019, when a KHRG researcher followed up the U L---, he explained that he could not even contact U Thein Zaw anymore. In addition, he said that the complaint letter they submitted to the Chief Minister of Kayin State remained unanswered. 

 

Part 4 - Permission for Using the Details

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.
U L --- gave KHRG permission to use this information. 
Fri, 28 Jun 2019

Footnotes: 

[1] Min Bagan Company Limited (မင်းပုဂံ ကုမ္ပဏီ လိမိတက်), Registration Number: 105342497 - See more information about this company here

[2] The present document is based on information received in May 2019. It was provided by a community member in Hpapun District who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions on the ground. The names of the victims, their photos and the exact locations are censored for security reasons. 

[3] U is a Burmese title used for elder men, used before their name. 

[4] All conversion estimates for the kyat in this report are based on the 31 May 2019 official market rate of 1,520.03 kyats to US $1. 

ဖးအါထီၣ်တၢ်ဂ့ၢ်ဘၣ်ထွဲတဖၣ်