Cambodian labor minister warns of strict law enforcement for illegal strikes

[geovalin]

Cambodian labor minister Ith Samheng warned Wednesday that the government will strictly implement the law to ensure the safety of the garment industry if the minority group of the trade unions holds illegal strikes.
"Garment strikes and demonstrations in Cambodia are not truly to demand higher wages or better working conditions, but they are a political package created by the opposition party and its aligned trade unions," he told reporters.
"Such issues cannot be settled in a short time. It is necessary to enforce the law strictly and violators will be punished in accordance with the effective law."
The minister also appealed to those minority unions to cancel planned strikes for the sake of the country and workers.
His remarks came after eight opposition-aligned trade unions on Tuesday announced that they would jointly lead a stay-at-home garment strike from April 17 to 22 to demand a 160 US dollars minimum wages for garment workers and the release of 21 detainees who were arrested in early January during violent protests.
According to Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, the eight trade unions represented over 100, 000 out of the 600,000 workers in about 900 garment and shoe factories in the country.
The garment industry, the kingdom's largest foreign exchange earner, generated some 5.53 billion dollars in revenues last year.
Monthly minimum wages for Cambodian garment workers currently are 100 dollars a month, up from 80 dollars last year.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said early this month that the current wages for Cambodian garment workers are higher than those of Laos, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Myanmar.

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