In Phnom Penh (Cambodia), around 500 garment workers from three factories marched to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house with a petition urging the premier help to claim their dues. The garment workers said their employer, a Chinese national, had fled the country without paying their December wages.
“There are 1,146 workers who are now employed as the three factories owned by a Chinese national had fled the country without paying their wages. We want the PM to help us find the owner and solve our problems by paying us our salary and if the factories end up closing, the owner must pay us all our benefits and seniority bonuses as stipulated in the Labour Law,” a worker said.
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Workers approached the PM after their meetings with the Labour Ministry and Council of Ministers failed to draw any fruitful results. Chhin Thea, Legal Official, Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union stated that meeting with Labour Ministry was pointless as one of the union negotiators did not agree to the proposed terms. “The company was ready to sell their equipment to pay their debts but they did not agreed, they want to settle this issue out of the court,” Thea revealed.
It has been observed lately that factory owners in the country are absconding from the country without paying their workers, with at least half a dozen such cases last year alone involving hundreds of garment workers. In September last year, the Ministry said it was preparing to enact regulations that would provide some amount of monetary relief to workers left in the lurch by factory owners who flee the country without giving workers advance notice or compensation.
