Courtesy of Fibre2fashion.
More than 2,100 people
working in Cambodian garment factories fainted in 2012, according to a
workers union, The Phnom Penh Post reported.
The
Free Trade Union (FTU) President Chea Mony said bad fumes, combined
with other factors like poor work environment and condition, long work
hours and lower wages are responsible for poor health of the workers,
which pushed the number of garment workers fainting in 29 factories
during 2012 to 2,107, up from around 1,800 in 2011.
As per FTU’s findings, the Kampong Speu based Anful garment factory
recorded the highest number of fainting incidences during 2012, with
around 300 workers fainting due to spraying of insecticides.
However, Director of the Labour Health Department and Chief of the
Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training’s committee to prevent
fainting, Pok Vanthat said, according to his committee’s findings, the
number of fainting incidences in 2012 declined to 1,686.
Vanthat said his figures are exact as they are based on the spending
from the Social Security Fund for compensating expenses on workers’
treatment.
The FTU chief said the fainting
incidents should induce the Government to pay increased attention to the
matter. The Government did took up the issue for a while, after Prime
Minister Hun Sen ordained Government action to avert such happenings in
May 2012, however, the efforts failed to deliver any long-term results.
In October last year, the Ministry of Labour launched a campaign to
educate factory workers about the causes of fainting, but according to
labour activists the programme did not provide a solution to the
problem.
Mr. Mony said instead of launching such
schemes, the Government should have rather acted to ensure security
benefits, healthy work environment and better remuneration for the
workers.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
No comments:
Post a Comment