Know Exactly What You Are Owed When Your Job Ends

Ma Ei Ei Mon was a sales coordinator at an electronics shop near Yuzana Plaza for four years. One Monday morning, the owner called her in and said business was bad and her position was eliminated. He told her to collect her things and leave by noon. He handed her an envelope with her final month's salary and said 'thank you for your hard work.' Ma Ei Ei Mon cried on the bus home. She had 150,000 kyats in her QuickPay account and a son starting Grade 5. She posted her story in a Facebook jobs group, and within an hour, multiple people told her she was entitled to termination notice or pay in lieu of notice, and potentially compensation for her four years of service. She had been owed at minimum one month's notice — or one month's salary as compensation for no notice. The shop owner knew this. He had offered her nothing beyond what he already owed for her final working month. Ma Ei Ei Mon went back three days later with information from a labour rights volunteer. The owner, confronted with specifics, paid her the notice period compensation. But Ma Ei Ei Mon knew she had almost walked away from money that was legally hers.