PM: Stop striking, or the economy gets it
The Phnom Penh Post | 20 June 2013
Free Trade Union president Chea Mony said factories in Cambodia, unlike those in Bangladesh and India, do not have to pay import taxes to the US and EU and therefore could afford to pay workers more.
M&V garment factory workers block Phnom Penh’s
National Road 2 during a protest yesterday. The workers have been on
strike over a week, demanding higher pay and better working conditions.
Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday appealed to the approximately 500,000
workers employed in Cambodia’s garment industry to avoid strikes or risk
losing factory owners’ business to other countries.
Speaking at the inauguration of a high school in Kandal’s Ang Snuol district, home to 38 garment and footwear factories, the premier noted that garment workers’ monthly minimum wage rose in May to $80 – a rate significantly better than in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
“Now salaries are not in line with [workers’] demands, but at least salaries have increased more than in some countries that are competing with us,” he said. “Do not allow investors to leave our country or there will be consequences for us.”
Without naming the worker or factory, the Prime Minister said that after a prolonged strike caused a factory to close, the strike’s leader had been unable to find other factory work because of his “bad background” (sic!).
Hun Sen urged that worker representatives, the Labour Ministry and employers convene regularly to balance wage increases against the risk of overpaying workers, which, he warned, could result in a situation like Greece’s debt crisis.
The premier’s speech came amid daily strikes for better working conditions and higher salaries. At a demonstration yesterday morning, about 1,000 workers from the M&V garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district blocked National Road 2 for an hour.
In response to Hun Sen’s speech, Eak Chan, M&V representative for the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’s Democratic Union, said “workers’ demands are never too excessive, because they’re legal and show that companies must respect the law.”
Free Trade Union president Chea Mony said factories in Cambodia, unlike those in Bangladesh and India, do not have to pay import taxes to the US and EU and therefore could afford to pay workers more.
Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the recent spate of strikes were concerning to investors because “all the strikes are illegal – they don’t go through the proper resolution procedure.”
But he added that although GMAC had seen some companies leave Cambodia, “they don’t tell us why they leave.”
Speaking at the inauguration of a high school in Kandal’s Ang Snuol district, home to 38 garment and footwear factories, the premier noted that garment workers’ monthly minimum wage rose in May to $80 – a rate significantly better than in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
“Now salaries are not in line with [workers’] demands, but at least salaries have increased more than in some countries that are competing with us,” he said. “Do not allow investors to leave our country or there will be consequences for us.”
Without naming the worker or factory, the Prime Minister said that after a prolonged strike caused a factory to close, the strike’s leader had been unable to find other factory work because of his “bad background” (sic!).
Hun Sen urged that worker representatives, the Labour Ministry and employers convene regularly to balance wage increases against the risk of overpaying workers, which, he warned, could result in a situation like Greece’s debt crisis.
The premier’s speech came amid daily strikes for better working conditions and higher salaries. At a demonstration yesterday morning, about 1,000 workers from the M&V garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district blocked National Road 2 for an hour.
In response to Hun Sen’s speech, Eak Chan, M&V representative for the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’s Democratic Union, said “workers’ demands are never too excessive, because they’re legal and show that companies must respect the law.”
Free Trade Union president Chea Mony said factories in Cambodia, unlike those in Bangladesh and India, do not have to pay import taxes to the US and EU and therefore could afford to pay workers more.
Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the recent spate of strikes were concerning to investors because “all the strikes are illegal – they don’t go through the proper resolution procedure.”
But he added that although GMAC had seen some companies leave Cambodia, “they don’t tell us why they leave.”
1 comment:
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.
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