Fifteen workers from the Sagaing-based Myanmar Veneer and Plywood Private Ltd (MVPPL) company have been given prison sentences by a court in Naypyidaw’s Tatkon Township for scuffling with police during a protest in May.

The group — 12 men and three women — were facing charges of unlawful assembly and rioting after a march from their workplace in Sagaing to the capital Naypyidaw ended in a physical confrontation with police in Tatkon. The workers were demanding government intervention in a dispute with their employer, who they accused of unlawfully dismissing workers for demanding overtime pay...

The Tatkon court…found the defendants guilty on all charges. The men were sentenced to five months imprisonment in total — two months each for the unlawful assembly charges, to be served concurrently, and three months for sedition. The three women will serve two months under the two unlawful assembly charges…