The 26 workers who were fired due to their protest against conditions in the Taiwanese owned Adidas shoe supplier in Yangon were offered to return to work by the factory, but the factory’s offer was allegedly unfair, so 17 of them rejected the offer, according to one of the workers.

On 25 October, more than 2,000 workers at the Pou Chen Group Factory protested for an increase in daily wages from 4,800 Kyat (US$1.7) to 8,000 Kyat (US$2.9), consequently 26 of them were fired two days after the protest.

Of the seven points in the re-employment offer made on 2 January, three points were said to be unfair to the dismissed workers. So, 17 out of the 26 dismissed workers did not sign the re-employment contract. Only nine of the 26 workers were settled with the employer and compensation. The details of how the nine workers were settled are still unclear.

"They made the re-employment offer. But the current contract is not a contract in accordance with the law, but it is a contract exclusively only for the dismissed workers. Three points are unfair in the offer,” said one of the dismissed workers. “Some points in the offer told us not to post the information in the contract online. If we do, they will sue us.”

The factory did not comply with the demands of the workers to properly form a Work Coordination Committee (WCC), according to the dismissed workers. The re-appointed workers were warned not to protest again and that they would be sued if they violated the contract.

The workers said that the factory reluctantly offered to rehire the dismissed workers only because this case was widely reported in the media.

Since the coup in February 2021 in Myanmar, employers have allegedly ignored workers' rights. Consequently, the majority of workers are vulnerable to exploitation.