By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
The meeting held on Monday morning was deceiving. The unions and the owners did not agree on the amount of the raise for the workers. The negotiation is still pursued under the impending threat of strike.
The committee for the salary raise did not find a solution to the problem faced by the garment workers. The increasing price of merchandises chokes workers in a sector where the salary was not great to start with. The meeting was held on Monday morning in the office of the Ministry of Social Affairs. While the reporters were kindly asked not to join the debates, the unions and the factory owners were all present, under the aegis of government representatives.
The demands were disparate because the raise requested varies between $5, $12 and $15, depending of the unions. “The debates took place in a good atmosphere,” Ith Sam Heng, the minister of Social Affairs, claimed. The meeting was cordial, but there was no agreement because the Garment Manufacturer Association of Cambodia (GMAC), the powerful owners group, accepted only a $4 raise for all the salaries. Furthermore, GMAC asks that the government cancels the 1% tax paid by the factories for the production of garments.
“We must think about this question,” Ith Sam Heng admitted. He delayed the answer to another meeting, to be held on Friday 04 April, during a labor consultative meeting.
On the union side, the bad mood reigns. Rong Chhun of the FTUWKC expressed his “desperation.” He said: “The Monday’s committee had the ability to resolve this issue. It preferred to delay the answer to a later date.” According to Rong Chhun, $4 raise is “not sufficient.” This increase “must also be final and not just a temporary one,” an option which was not decided on Monday either.
Other unions express the same displeasure. The idea of a strike is coming back, with even more resurgence because a failure to resolve this issue on Friday means that there is no other way for all the parties concerned to agree with each other.
The committee for the salary raise did not find a solution to the problem faced by the garment workers. The increasing price of merchandises chokes workers in a sector where the salary was not great to start with. The meeting was held on Monday morning in the office of the Ministry of Social Affairs. While the reporters were kindly asked not to join the debates, the unions and the factory owners were all present, under the aegis of government representatives.
The demands were disparate because the raise requested varies between $5, $12 and $15, depending of the unions. “The debates took place in a good atmosphere,” Ith Sam Heng, the minister of Social Affairs, claimed. The meeting was cordial, but there was no agreement because the Garment Manufacturer Association of Cambodia (GMAC), the powerful owners group, accepted only a $4 raise for all the salaries. Furthermore, GMAC asks that the government cancels the 1% tax paid by the factories for the production of garments.
“We must think about this question,” Ith Sam Heng admitted. He delayed the answer to another meeting, to be held on Friday 04 April, during a labor consultative meeting.
On the union side, the bad mood reigns. Rong Chhun of the FTUWKC expressed his “desperation.” He said: “The Monday’s committee had the ability to resolve this issue. It preferred to delay the answer to a later date.” According to Rong Chhun, $4 raise is “not sufficient.” This increase “must also be final and not just a temporary one,” an option which was not decided on Monday either.
Other unions express the same displeasure. The idea of a strike is coming back, with even more resurgence because a failure to resolve this issue on Friday means that there is no other way for all the parties concerned to agree with each other.
1 comment:
Anyone who loses Khmer's job is dead meat.
If you don't want the job, leave. No one have the right to deny other people from working by pushing jobs out of the country.
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