Wednesday, 11 July 2012
By Mom Kunthear
Phnom Penh Post
The
president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions has been summonsed
to Kandal Provincial Court to answer incitement and defamation
allegations levied against her by the owner of the strike-plagued Tai
Yang Enterprise factories.
The court complaint comes ahead of
major negotiations today in the seemingly irresolvable dispute between
thousands of workers at the Tai Yang factories, which supply Levis and
Gap, and factory officials.
“KiKi Wang, the company
director-general, filed a complaint against the president of the
Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, who led the workers to hold the
illegal strike that caused the factory to lose more than US$10,000 per
day,” Tai Yang Enterprise administrative manager Ou Meng Hour said
yesterday.
Hour said his company had never had problems, but
Yang Sophorn, president of CATU, incited the workers to illegally strike
for the past 14 days, causing a massive profit loss.
CATU’s
claims that “thousands” are striking and that the company has abused
workers’ rights are simply untrue, Meng Hour protested.
Seventy-five
per cent of workers have returned to work, with only a few hundred
continuing to strike, and the company pays salaries of US$70 per month,
compared to an industry average of $61, he added.
Kandal court
officials sent a summons to Sophorn to appear in court for questioning
tomorrow over the incitement and defamation allegations.
However,
Sophorn, unfazed by the court action, has rescheduled her appearance in
order for her to lead Tai Yang’s largest strike yet in Phnom Penh that
day.
Sophorn said she was not worried or scared about the complaint, because workers had asked her union to help.
“They
sent me the letter to help them through the legal procedure, and I have
a duty to help them. I did not incite them to hold an illegal strike by
myself. I informed the factory as per the labour law about holding a
strike,” she said, adding that the factory has money and power, so is
able to do what it wants to block a strike action.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mom Kunthear at kunthear.mom@phnompenhpost.com
1 comment:
he was incited the problems,,
i supported by summon him to court,
sooner or later, khmer's peoples will out of jobs.
this guy will not take responsible, for losing their jobs..
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