Ministry meets with protesting garment workers following factory closures

Yon Sineat and Daphne Chen | Publication date 12 February 2018 | 18:32 ICT

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An empty factory floor in Phnom Penh's Por Senchey district, pictured this morning after its owner absconded last week leaving workers out of a job. Pha Lina

Officials from the Ministry of Labour met with former workers from three garment factories in the capital's Por Senchey district this morning after the owner absconded without warning last week, leaving 2,000 workers without their severance or salary for the month of January.

Although ministry spokesman Heng Sour was tight-lipped on the discussion, workers said they were informed that they have two options: sell the remaining assets of the factory in the hope of recouping their losses, or file a complaint with the courts.

Worker Deuk Doeun, who is 36 years old and eight months pregnant with her first baby, said employees were still divided over their course of action.

Doeun, who worked at Taiwanese-owned Yu Da Garment Industry for more than nine years, said she has few savings to support her now that she has suddenly lost her job.

“It looks bad that foreign employers can do something like this so easily in our own country, just disappear without any responsibility,” Doeun said. “We work so hard, even when we’re sick we don’t want to ask for leave ... I want the fair solution for compensation for workers and for it to follow the law.”

Garment workers from a shuttered factory protest in Phnom Penh this morning. Pha Lina

Sour said the meeting was “routine” and that the ministry was negotiating with the workers and the factory owners.

However he declined to say whether the ministry was in contact with the owner of the three Taiwanese-owned factories, Yu Da Garment Industry, Yu Fa Garment Industry and S.R.E. Garment Co. Ltd.

“I don’t think in any country they would tell about the negotiation,” Sour said. “Otherwise, it’s not called dispute resolution, it’s not called negotiation. Your wondering could be damaging to the workers.

“Let the process be complete... We know how to bring both sides together.”