Around 900 workers at a Phnom Penh factory said the owner won’t let them resume work after a two-month suspension and alleged most of the suspended workers support a pro-worker union.
A garment workers’ union is seeking help from the Ministry of Labor in resolving a stalled dispute over the sudden termination of 1,700 Phnom Penh factory workers earlier this month but has yet to reach a solution.
VOD maintains that its recent reporting on workers protesting at a garment factory was professional after factory lawyers complained to the news organization and demanded an apology.
Around 200 workers from the Hand Seven Apparel in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district say the factory was shutting down to move to a new location while forcing workers to resign from their positions so it can sidestep compensation requirements.
Workers will not get compensatory leave for Pchum Ben holidays falling on the weekend. A Candlelight official said there had been no progress made in a police investigation into violence against them in July.
Hundreds of workers at a Phnom Penh factory protested on Wednesday after five of their colleagues from the quality control department were fired, though they were reinstated after negotiations.
A Kandal province factory is continuing to refuse to reinstate workers whom it fired as they were trying to start a union, and workers now want to take up the issue with the factory’s international clients.
Workers demanding legal compensation from a shuttered garment factory gathered outside the Labor Ministry on Monday to file a petition seeking its intervention.
A Phnom Penh factory shut down, fired all workers, failed to pay compensation, and began moving valuable equipment to another factory nearby, workers allege.
A local union said two factories in Kandal province are failing to follow Labor Ministry orders to rehire unionized workers that were fired illegally.
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