Workers Seek Ministry’s Help

About 300 employees of Dongdu Textile factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district marched to the Ministry of Labor yesterday morning asking for help after their factory fired more than 800 workers due to ongoing protests, the marchers said. Suth Chet, an official at the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) said that the workers gathered in front of the ministry to ask Labor Minister Ith Samheng to force the factory to reinstate all of the fired workers. They said the factory ignored orders from the Arbitration Council to reinstate them.
 

“The workers at Dongdu Textile factory protested to demand better working conditions for almost one month, and the factory fired all of the protesters. The employer did not respect the Arbitration Council, which ordered the company to accept the workers back, and that is why the workers decided to come seek help from the minister,” he said. Mr. Chet said the ministry representative accepted their petition but did not respond when asked when the ministry will take action, and that he had been called in to help the workers when they sent a letter to his union asking for assistance on Monday. Their protests have had little success in pushing the factory to improve conditions or reinstate them.
 

“More than 800 workers who protested were blocked and not allowed to come into the factory to work, even though the Arbitration Council ordered them to accept them back,” he said. “This is an abuse of the rights of workers by the factory, and they have shown that they do not respect Cambodia’s labor law.” A Dongdu Textile factory representative who answered their office’s telephone yesterday declined to comment on the situation.

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