Outside the bankrupt Sinfa Kid garment factory, which has been abandoned by its missing owner, more than 80 former employees burnt tyres yesterday while demanding payment of overdue wages.

Roughly half of the company’s former workforce turned out to call for Sinfa Kid to hand over materials from the factory which workers could sell in order to support themselves, Chea Sophat, an officer at the Cambodian Union Federation, said. “The workers kept protesting in order to demand their current month’s wages and compensation,” he said.

Phin Sam Oeun, Sinfa Kid’s administrative manager, said yesterday that the workers had continued to strike, only breaking for Khmer New Year, since the company’s owner disappeared on April 8 and that no resolution to the dispute was in sight.

While Touch Srey Leak, a 26-year-old former employee , said yesterday that the situation had become desperate and called on government authorities to intervene.

“I borrowed money from my friends to buy food, and my landlord threw my possessions such as clothes and other things out of the house because I don’t have money to pay for [rent],” she said.