Workers Clash With Factory Over Salary

Enraged workers smashing glass windows inside the factory administration office (Photo: Chomchao, Koh Santepheap newspaper)

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
14 February 2008

As many as 100 workers broke through glass panes and destroyed office material at the Tonga garment factory Tuesday, angered by the management’s failure to pay timely salaries.

Worker representatives said they were facing rising prices of room rental and other penalties if they weren’t paid.

The violence erupted after the factory owner announced he would not provide a salary to workers who lodged complaints against the factory, a union leader said.

Seung Chanrith, a union leader in the Tonga garment factory, told VOA Khmer on Tuesday that he was seeking an internal solution to the dispute.

“Our workers broke the door and the glass wall,” he said. “I went immediately to the garment factory and I heard that the workers were very angry with the company, which did not provide them their salaries.”

Management said the workers had not properly followed arbitration procedures.

Workers said they wanted appropriate salaries dispensed without discrimination.

“The workers are angry because they don’t have money for house rental, water supply, food, and our whole living condition,” one worker said. “Now the house owner demands a fee from us if we don’t have money for owner then they will stop renting the house to us.”

No one was arrested following the protest.

Ang Eng Thong, head of an arbitration council at the factory, said the company will have to provide full salaries to the workers, including for the time work was suspended.

Violent demonstration exploded with the workers destroying the Tonga administration office

Enraged workers smashing glass windows inside the factory administration office (Photo: Chomchao, Koh Santepheap newspaper)
Scene in front of the Tonga factory during the violence (Photo: Chomchao, Koh Santepheap)
Workers destroying documents and smashing computers (Photo: Chomchao, Koh Santepheap)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Koh Santepheap Newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Phnom Penh – More than 1,000 workers at the Tonga garment factory held a violent demonstration by smashing doors, glass windows in the factory, as well as a number of other equipments, and they caused severe damages to the factory. The workers also threatened to burn down the factory. The violence took place at 9:30 AM on 11 February 2008 at the Tonga factory located in Prey Lvea Village, Chomchao commune, Dangkao district, Phnom Penh city.

The more than 1,000 workers exploded into a demonstration, they were all armed with wooden sticks and steel rods, and they all had pieces of rock in their hands. They forced themselves in and smashed the doors, the glass windows, as well as a number of other equipments including computers inside the factory which were completely destroyed. The workers indicated that they held a strike to ask the factory owner to resolve the labor issue inside the factory for the past two months already, starting since November 2007, but the owner refused to resolve the dispute, not only that, he also decided to close the factory and refused to pay the money owed to the workers, and the workers are left with no other choice but to resort to violence.

The workers added that the long-duration strike led to the current violence, and the strike took place because of the salary the workers used to earn in the past: they are paid with factory tickets, and they were paid a decent salary each month, however, lately, the owners decided to pay them a fixed salary of $50 per month. Because of this change in pay scale, the workers protested and asked the factory owner to resolve this issue with the government appointed arbitrators, the latter decided in favor of the workers (i.e. they should be compensated based on the amount of work they put in), and the owner was ordered to follow the government arbitrators decision. To the contrary, the owner refused to abide by the arbitrators decision, and the strike kept stretching on until the morning of 11 February when the workers could no longer take it and they resorted to using violence.

Another source indicated that when the workers refused to work, the government arbitrators ordered the factory owner to pay 50% of the workers full monthly salary (which was owed to the workers prior to the strike), but the owner decided to ignore this order. On the morning of the incident, the workers smashed doors, glass windows, as well as equipments found in the administration office, but they did not destroy the sewing machines and they stood guard to protect these machines fearing the owner will take them away.

The same source indicated that the factory was closed for a long duration, and the workers claimed that the owner is a crook because he refused to abide by the decision of the government arbitrators in order to weaken the workers. Some source claimed that the owner may be bankrupt and he decided to close the factory. As for the equipments and the sewing machines etc…, they may not belong to the factory owner because they may be rented equipments, that was why the factory owner did not care to resolve this issue until violence occurred.