Thursday, November 21, 2013

Strike reaches City Hall


A group of garment workers from Alim garment factory
gather outside Phnom Penh City Hall yesterday. Pha Lina
Mom Kunthear, The Phnom Penh Post
20 November 2013

More than 100 workers from the Alim garment factory in Phnom Penh marched on City Hall yesterday, demanding the dismissal of four managers.

Yam Thaisan, a legal officer from a union representing the workers at the Por Sen Chey district factory, said strikers had called on Municipal Governor Pa Socheatvong to intervene to resolve the dispute.

“[The governor’s] representative accepted our petition, but did not promise to resolve this for us,” he said. “We will continue our protest again tomorrow, and we will travel to Hun Sen’s house soon if we have to.”

More than 400 workers have been on strike for nearly two weeks, demanding the sacking of the four managers, a 2,000-riel lunch allowance and wage uniformity.

Uth Phanha, a manager at the factory, said yesterday that bosses had tried their best to end the strike, but workers did not respect Arbitration Council or municipal court rulings for them to return to work.

“At no point have we prevented them from coming back to work,” Phanha said. “I’m not sure what my directors will do if they still won’t go back to work as the court has ordered.”

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