By Vong Sokheng and Dan Poynton
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 16 / 02, January 26 - February 8, 2007
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen to take factory strikes off the streets.
Van Sou Ieng, GMAC chairman and representative of the Export Trade Facilitation Working Group, made the request at the 11th Government-Private Sector Forum at the Council for the Development of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on January 24. Sou Ieng has asked the government to take strong and effective measures to enforce labor laws - specifically that section of the law that he said prohibits factory workers from demonstrating on the streets, but allows for strikes within factory compounds.
Sou Ieng also told the forum that many training courses and seminars conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and NGOs, educating workers on their rights, encouraged them to hold more strikes.
"Many strikes, or rather demonstrations, from non-ethical and irresponsible unions have created a bad image of Cambodia," Sou Ieng said. "This has become intolerable [and is now] affecting existing investors' confidence," Sou Ieng said. "There must be something wrong with this training process."
He said in his speech that in 2006 the garment factory lost 343,713 working days due to illegal and wildcat strikes. Ieng estimated that approximately 30 percent of the strikes were organized by the Free Trade Union (FTU) led by Chea Mony, the Cambodian Labor Confederation (CLC) led by Ath Thorn, and the Khmer Youth Federation Trade Union (KYFTU) led by Yun Rithy.
He said that within the last three months FTU-led strikes alone had caused 3,000 workers to lose their jobs, with one factory abandoning its night shift operation and another closing.
He said there is nothing in the Cambodian investment law that allows such strikes.
Sou Ieng expressed surprise that the three unions had been unable to unite into a single confederation. "This disparity within unions surely reflects that some of them represent their self-interest and maybe the interests of other groups," he said.
He said the garment industry's 2006 exports were a remarkable success, and 57 new garment factories had been established in Cambodia. These have created 50,000 new jobs of which 90 percent are for poor rural women.
The industry now employs 320,000 people. It is the sixth biggest exporter of women's and girls' T-shirts to the United States and the tenth biggest of pants.
But, Chea Mony told the Post on January 25 the FTU rejected GMAC allegations. He said all factory owners were informed of workers' demands well in advance of the strikes, but that the owners had simply ignored their issues.
Mony said the closures of four garment factories earlier this year had nothing to do with strikes or demonstrations.
He said these were because of owners embezzling funds and fleeing the country, internal disputes, and mismanagement within the companies.
"We organized strikes because we wanted to encourage factory owners to respect the law and improve working conditions," Mony said. "We need GMAC to show us some evidence for its allegations."
Also at the forum, Hun Sen warned the ILO to examine its employees and reports on the garment industry in Cambodia, saying the ILO had produced "untruthful reports" concerning garment factories. He made the comments in response to concerns from a potential investor at the forum that ILO working condition reports were putting off some investors.
The ILO in Bangkok has since issued a press statement announcing it has written to the Cambodian government "seeking clarification" on Hun Sen's comments about the ILO in Cambodia.
"The ILO's work in Cambodia has been taking place in a harmonious climate and we look forward to the continuation of these positive relations and constructive cooperation," the statement said.
Since 2001 the ILO has been running a project, Better Factories (BF), which monitors working conditions in Cambodia's garment factories. BF project manager Tuomo Poutiainen told local press he was unaware of any recent rise in problems in their monitoring system, and it was the first time BF had heard such allegations.
Van Sou Ieng, GMAC chairman and representative of the Export Trade Facilitation Working Group, made the request at the 11th Government-Private Sector Forum at the Council for the Development of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on January 24. Sou Ieng has asked the government to take strong and effective measures to enforce labor laws - specifically that section of the law that he said prohibits factory workers from demonstrating on the streets, but allows for strikes within factory compounds.
Sou Ieng also told the forum that many training courses and seminars conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and NGOs, educating workers on their rights, encouraged them to hold more strikes.
"Many strikes, or rather demonstrations, from non-ethical and irresponsible unions have created a bad image of Cambodia," Sou Ieng said. "This has become intolerable [and is now] affecting existing investors' confidence," Sou Ieng said. "There must be something wrong with this training process."
He said in his speech that in 2006 the garment factory lost 343,713 working days due to illegal and wildcat strikes. Ieng estimated that approximately 30 percent of the strikes were organized by the Free Trade Union (FTU) led by Chea Mony, the Cambodian Labor Confederation (CLC) led by Ath Thorn, and the Khmer Youth Federation Trade Union (KYFTU) led by Yun Rithy.
He said that within the last three months FTU-led strikes alone had caused 3,000 workers to lose their jobs, with one factory abandoning its night shift operation and another closing.
He said there is nothing in the Cambodian investment law that allows such strikes.
Sou Ieng expressed surprise that the three unions had been unable to unite into a single confederation. "This disparity within unions surely reflects that some of them represent their self-interest and maybe the interests of other groups," he said.
He said the garment industry's 2006 exports were a remarkable success, and 57 new garment factories had been established in Cambodia. These have created 50,000 new jobs of which 90 percent are for poor rural women.
The industry now employs 320,000 people. It is the sixth biggest exporter of women's and girls' T-shirts to the United States and the tenth biggest of pants.
But, Chea Mony told the Post on January 25 the FTU rejected GMAC allegations. He said all factory owners were informed of workers' demands well in advance of the strikes, but that the owners had simply ignored their issues.
Mony said the closures of four garment factories earlier this year had nothing to do with strikes or demonstrations.
He said these were because of owners embezzling funds and fleeing the country, internal disputes, and mismanagement within the companies.
"We organized strikes because we wanted to encourage factory owners to respect the law and improve working conditions," Mony said. "We need GMAC to show us some evidence for its allegations."
Also at the forum, Hun Sen warned the ILO to examine its employees and reports on the garment industry in Cambodia, saying the ILO had produced "untruthful reports" concerning garment factories. He made the comments in response to concerns from a potential investor at the forum that ILO working condition reports were putting off some investors.
The ILO in Bangkok has since issued a press statement announcing it has written to the Cambodian government "seeking clarification" on Hun Sen's comments about the ILO in Cambodia.
"The ILO's work in Cambodia has been taking place in a harmonious climate and we look forward to the continuation of these positive relations and constructive cooperation," the statement said.
Since 2001 the ILO has been running a project, Better Factories (BF), which monitors working conditions in Cambodia's garment factories. BF project manager Tuomo Poutiainen told local press he was unaware of any recent rise in problems in their monitoring system, and it was the first time BF had heard such allegations.
1 comment:
What is a bunch of stupid Union?
First, if the working condition
is poor, you can strike to bring
it up to standard or to maintain
standard.
And if you want better than
standard you will have to pay for
it. You don't expect bussinesses
people to take a cut in profit,
do you?
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