“All worker organisations have also said that they can’t accept five days’ off during the Thingyan festival. Through this protest, we will ask again to have 10 days off,” Yangon regional CTUM chairperson Ma Win Theingi Soe told The Myanmar Times.

“If the government will not consider this demand, I am sure a more extreme strike will be planned next.”

She also said that according to a survey by CTUM, most workers are not satisfied with the holiday reduction as most factory workers come from far away and have many difficulties going back to their families within a five-day holiday.

“We are not government servants. We are from the private sectors. We have only a few days’ leave, while government staff have several holidays. If they [the government] want to set up the holidays equally, give us the same rights,” said Ma Win Theingi Soe.

The NLD government reduced the Myanmar New Year’s Thingyan holidays from 10 days to five, saying that the extra five days will be added to the holiday periods for Thadingyut, Tazaungdaing and the international New Year festivals.

The government also announced that civil servants will still be given 10 days of holidays for this year, but subsequent years will be reduced to five.

Officials from the Ministry of Labour have also asked business owners to consider allowing their workers to take 10 days off this year.

Ma Win Theingi Soe said that changing the number of holidays was troublesome to both employers and employees.

“Most of the workers at my factory come from so far from the Yangon Region. They definitely cannot go back to their hometowns within five days. We will only accept 10 days off as usual,” a garment factory worker striker Ma Swe Swe Than told The Myanmar Times.

Over the past two weeks, workers from about 10 factories have launched strikes to get 10 days off during the Myanmar New Year holidays.

The Myanmar Times couldn’t reach officials from the Ministry of Labour for their comment on the worker’s demands for Thingyan holidays.