Australia Network News
About 6,000 Cambodian garment workers will return to work after their company agreed to withdraw a huge dismissal of employees.
5,000 workers marched from the factory to Phnom Penh's City Hall, after more than 700 of their colleagues were fired for striking over conditions.
Union
leader Ath Thorn says after discussions with owners of the
Singapore-owned SL Garment Processing factory, workers will now return
to work.
"The company agreed to withdraw the dismissal. Now all
the 6,000 workers have the right to come back to work," says Mr Thorn,
President of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic
Union.
Despite the agreement, Mr Thorn says workers still have demands, including increased wages, improved working conditions and better health and safety standards.
He says since the country's elections in July, the government is investing more time into the issue of workers conditions.
"Before the general election, the government was not really involved," he says.
"But after the general election, the government agreed to help set up the committee for increased salary,
"And now when I came to the City Hall, they said they will become more involed with working conditions."
However, he says this is "just a start".
Mr Thorn says workers were being intimidated by the presence of armed military police who regularly inspected the factory.
In July, a report from the International labour Organisation said conditions for garment factory workers in Cambodia are declining.
Inspections of 158 factories revealed that areas that could be improved are child labour, fire safety and workers' health.
The deaths of two factory workers in Cambodia in May raised the pressure to improve the record.
The garment industry provides 650,000 jobs in Cambodia but safety needs to be improved.
ABC
Watch the video of the mass protests here.
No comments:
Post a Comment