Cambodia PM says garment firms may quit over wage rows
AFP | 20 June 2013
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia's strongman Prime Minister Hun
Sen on Wednesday warned garment workers that protests demanding higher
wages could push manufacturers to quit the country.
His appeal
came after unions last week said hundreds of workers had been fired from
a factory making sportswear for US giant Nike after a series of pay
protests.
Cambodian workers have repeatedly demonstrated against
low wages and tough conditions in the multibillion-dollar textile
industry, which produces goods for top western brands.
Currently workers can earn around $110 a month with overtime.
Hun
Sen said repeated protests may imperil the country's lucrative garment
industry by persuading firms to relocate to Myanmar, Laos and India
where labour is cheaper.
"If the investors move out, it will be a big disaster for our country," [and whose fault is that?!] Hun Sen said in a speech broadcast on national radio.
"It
is easy for garment and footwear factories to flee the country," he
said, warning workers to be "cautious over high pay demands".
The premier said some $480 million was paid to workers across the country each month.
The
textile industry, which employs about 650,000 people and produces
clothes for top western brands, is a key source of foreign income for
the country.
Hundreds of workers on Wednesday briefly blocked the
road outside a factory in the capital Phnom Penh making clothes for
Swedish clothes firm H&M protesting over healthcare payment,
according to an AFP photographer.
The incident comes after 10
workers were injured when police broke up a June 3 demonstration at a
factory in the southern province of Kampong Speu making goods for Nike.
Sixteen
garment workers and union representatives have been charged with
inciting violence and damaging property during the protest, judge Chhim
Rithy, from Kampong Speu provincial court, told AFP.
Eight of the activists are being held in detention, the judge added.
A week earlier riot police allegedly used stun batons against the strikers.
Protesters
said a pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage in that crackdown, and
have accused the security personnel of using excessive force to quell
the rallies.
Unionists rejected Hun Sen's comments.
"He (Hun Sen) does not know the hardship the workers are facing," said Chea Mony, leader of the Free Trade Union.
"Generally, the factory owners do not respect the laws or workers' rights."
8 comments:
If the garment companies quit where they plan to relocate. To VN, Laos, or Bangaldesh, Myammar, or Africa continents... hose demand more strigent labour contracts and wages than Cambodia.
Cambodia is the last resort location where the companies want to leave.
All troubles they have been through in Cambodia with corruption, infrastructure inadequate, high cost of eletricity, labour disputes and so forth... They still want to stay in Cambodia because after doing the math... they still make money...and a lot of $$$$
Mr. Hun Sen be aware and don't just say...
Cut down the corruption & raise the minimum wage ? No way , because the graft
keep CPP afloat . Hun Sen free market has became anarchy where the poor people
have became the victims - In Troeung , a village of Kompong Cham Province where
its two districts meet , the dwellers on the west side of a street have to pay double
amount of what the people across the street do for the electricity .
Reasonable wage doesn't scare the investors away , but the corruption & other factors
such as the cost of electricity , gasoline ( transportation ) , skilled labors ect ...
maybe protesting like this will weed out bad investors or unwanted investors from cambodia, you know. a free country like cambodia should be able to protest like this, really! practice what you preach, ok!
MR CHEA MONY DO NOT UNDERSTANDING HUN SEN'S LAW! " MASS MURDER " WAKE UP ONE DAY TO TWO WEEK HUN SEN WILL CHANGE THEIR ABILITY!
AH HUN SEN must be smoking something if he thinks that these dirt cheap labor cost manufacturers plan to stay in Cambodia forever! These dirt cheap labor cost manufactures don't give a fuck about the workers, the local law, and the country and if these manufactures don't make profit and the manufactures will move on to other countries to find more cheaper and cheaper labor cost!
This is the wrong economic model for Cambodian job market! Cambodian government must create indigenous job market independent of these dirt cheap labor manufactures because soon or later these dirt cheap labor manufactures will pull out from Cambodia and the nightmare and the chaos in Cambodian job market will destroy Cambodia as a whole and negative affected on all others sectors of Cambodian economy!
The pursuit of dirt cheap labor for Cambodia is not the way to go for Cambodia! Cambodian people need job security and a decent living of standard and affordable basic human services and consumer goods.
Hun Sen is the Prime Liar of Cambodia.
He protects the garment manufacturers because they gets corruption money; leaving the poor Khmers in the dust. If you don't fight for your rights, no one else will...
AH HUN SEN is going insane by the day! The more he talks and the more he makes mistakes!
AH HUN SEN need to shut the fuck up!
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