WORKERS at the PDC Garment factory in Phnom Penh seized machinery and assets after the business shut its doors and management fled.

The union has filed a complaint with the court and workers say the factory's assets will be used as compensation for unpaid salaries.

"We cannot keep operating without salaries and clear information from the factory," said Sok Pheap, a spokesman for the company.

He said the factory closed without notice and the manager and eight Chinese staff escaped on Saturday night.

Tep Kimvannary, deputy president of Cambodia Independence Federal Union, said on Thursday that her union has received complaints from the workers, and the union is freezing the factory's property including garments and land awaiting legal resolution.

"I do not think that the closure is due to bankruptcy, but it is a trick to take money and escape to establish a new factory," she said.

She estimated that the factory's land plot is worth up to US$1 million and the remaining garments worth about $20,000.

"I think that the property can settle the debts for the workers, but this depends on the Labour Ministry and the courts," she said.

Hour Soeu, chief of the litigation office at the ministry, said Thursday he had received the complaint from the workers and had visited the factory already, but said that the courts must settle the matter.