Garment spat

REPRESENTATIVES of a Phnom Penh garment factory yesterday refused to reinstate three employees who were fired last week, citing a court order, a union official said.

On Wednesday last week, Phnom Penh Municipal Court ordered around 160 workers who had staged a weeklong strike at the factory to return to work within 48 hours, and gave the company permission to fire three union representatives accused of inciting the workers to strike.

Som Aun, president of the Cambodian Labour Union Confederation, said yesterday that he would continue to press the company to let Ien Pov, Hourt Bora and Nun Chamnan return to work.

“I will discuss this with the court officials and factory lawyer on Friday and request that the court issue another letter to allow those three workers to start their work again,” he said.

Factory representatives could not be reached.

Rin Saveat, deputy union leader at the factory, said workers would strike again if the three were not reinstated soon.