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Thousands of workers go on strike to demand higher wage in Cambodia

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Thousands of Cambodian factory workers in two special economic zones (SEZs) in eastern Svay Rieng province's Bavet town continued their protests on Thursday to demand higher minimum wage, a senior labor official said.

"Nearly 30,000 workers at 39 factories in the Manhattan and Tai Seng SEZs have gone on strike since Wednesday afternoon to demand higher minimum wage," Has Bunthy, chief of Svay Rieng Provincial Labor Department, told Xinhua.

Their protests came after provincial labor officials announced the amount of increase in the minimum wage for the garment and footwear sector that takes effect next month, he said.

In October, the Cambodian government set the new monthly minimum wage for the garment and footwear sector at 140 U.S. dollars for next year, up 9.4 percent from the current 128 U.S. dollars.

"The protesters said the increase was too low and demanded that the wage should be raised to 148 U.S. dollars," he said. "We cannot agree with their demand because the government has already decided over the minimum wage for 2016."

He said the protests started from Kingmaker Cambodia Footwear factory in Manhattan SEZ on Wednesday when some protesters had thrown stones at factories' windows and forced workers in other factories to join them.

According to Has Bunthy, hundreds of security forces have been deployed to the two SEZs to protect factories and investors on Thursday.

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) called on the government, especially competent institutions and local authority, to take immediate effective and appropriate measures for the protection of security and safety of the investors and their properties.

"Today Dec.17, 2015, the whole production activities of Manhattan Special Economic Zone have been completely stopped, causing millions of dollars in loss," the GMAC said in an open letter sent to Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen.

Garment and footwear sector, the kingdom's largest foreign currency earner, are comprised of nearly 1,100 factories with some 700,000 workers, according to the government figures.

The sector exported products worth 3.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2015, accounted for about 80 percent of the country's total exports. Enditem